THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Commodore  Byron  McCandless 


OLIVER   CROMWELL 

BY  GEORGE  H.  CLARK,  D.D. 
WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 
CHARLES  DUDLEY  WARNER 
AND  ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM 
OLD  PAINTINGS  AND  PRINTS 


It  is  the  property  of  the  hero,  in  every  time,  in  every  place, 
in  every  situation,  that  lie  comes  back  to  reality;  that  he  stands 
upon  things,  and  not  shows  of  things. — Carlylc. 


NEW    YORK 

HARPER    &   BROTHERS   PUBLISHERS 

1895 


Copyright,  1893,  by  D.  Lothrop  Company. 


Copyright,  1895,  by  Harper  &    Brothers. 


All  rights  rutrved* 


PA 


The  heroic  soul,  amidst  its  bliss  or  woe, 
Is  never  swell'd  too  high,  nor  sunk  too  low; 
Stands,  like  its  origin  above  the  skies, 
Ever  the  same  great  self,  sedately  wise ; 
Collected  and  prepared  in  every  stage 
To  scorn  a  courting  world,  or  bear  its  rage. 


Henley. 


Unknown  to  Cromwell  as  to  me, 
Was  Cromwell's  measure  or  degree. 

He  works,  plots,  lights,  in  rude  affairs, 
With  squires,  lords,  kings,  his  craft  compares, 
Till  late  he  learned,  through  doubt  and  fear, 
Broad  England  harbored  not  his  peer. 

Emerson. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

The  first  extant  letter  from  Oliver  Cromwell, 
printed  by  Thomas  Carlyle,  is  dated  at  St.  Ives, 
January  11,  1635-6.  This  was  near  the  time  when 
Thomas  Hooker  was  on  his  way  to  make  a  settle- 
ment in  Hartford.  Hooker  was  already  known. 
His  latest  sermons  were  published  in  London,  and 
devoutly  read  by  those  who  believed  that  "man  has 
a  soul  to  be  saved,"  and  doubtless  by  the  farmer  of 
St.  Ives,  who  later  on  was  to  come  into  the  Protec- 
torate through  the  strait  gate  of  this  belief.  This 
conception  of  life  leads  one  to  transact  directly  with 
God,  seeing  Divine  Right  nowhere  else,  and  tends 
logically  to  the  separation  of  Church  and  State. 
Here  Hooker  learned  his  democracy,  and  for  this 
reason  Cromwell  rebelled  against  the  invasion  of 
the  freedom  of  the  soul  in  the  unbridled  tyranny 
of  Charles  and  the  intolerance  of  his  bishops.  In 
America,  Hooker  founded  a  democracy;  in  England, 
Cromwell  fought  for  a  free  parliament  and  a  consti- 
tutionally limited  executive  ;  but  the  spirit  and  pur- 
pose of  both  men  were  the  same,  and  the  Hartford 
minister  and  the  Huntingdon  gentleman  are  pre- 
eminently the  leaders  in  that  great  movement  of  the 
seventeenth  century  which  made  the  United  States 
and  is  now  transforming  England. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

There  is  therefore  something  singularly  appro- 
priate and  significant  in  the  fact  that  the  first  book 
written  in  Amei'ica  that  treats  Cromwell  with  un- 
derstanding, with  historic  insight,  and  with  a  full 
conception  of  his  noble  character  and  his  gigantic 
intellect,  should  come  from  a  clergyman  of  Hook- 
er's own  city,  and  of  a  branch  of  that  historic  church 
which  for  centuries  has  been  praying  for  the  "  Mar- 
tyr" Charles,  of  blessed  memory. 

Oliver  Cromwell  was  not  an  agitator.  He  took 
up  the  duties  of  a  plain,  God-fearing  citizen,  prayer- 
fully anxious  to  conserve  the  liberties  of  the  people 
of  England  and  the  honor  of  the  English  nation. 
The  result  of  his  genius  and  fortitude  was  the  de- 
struction in  England  forever  of  the  Stuart  idea  of 
monarchy;  but  nothing  is  plainer  than  that  he  had 
no  hostility  to  a  constitutional  limited  monarchy, 
and  that  if  Charles  had  possessed  brains  enough  to 
comprehend  the  age  in  which  he  lived — in  short,  had 
not  been  a  Stuart — he  might  have  reigned  prosper- 
ous!}', with  Cromwell  his  stanch  supporter,  and  a 
parliament  loyal  to  him  as  the  executive  of  the 
people.  As  a  statesman,  Cromwell  was  conservative, 
the  friend  of  law,  and  the  suppressor  of  disorder. 
It  is  possible  that,  if  he  were  living  to-day,  he  would 
belong  to  the  conservative  party,  for  the  ruling  pas- 
sion of  his  life,  mingling,  indeed,  with  his  deepest 
religious  convictions,  was  pride  in  England  and  the 
development  of  its  power.  Time  is  slowly  vindi 
c;itiiig  bis  memory.  The  greatest  ruler,  the  great 
est  soldier,  the  most  far-seeing  and  profound  statrs 
man.  the  noblest  man    in  public  life  that  England 


INTRODUCTORY. 

has  produced,  emerges  to  the  light  of  day  from  11 1 o 
cloud  of  malignant  calumny  and  misrepresentation 
with  which  the  dissolute  forces  of  the  old  monarchy, 
the  bigots,  and  the  fanatics  of  all  sorts,  have  con- 
tinually, almost  to  this  day,  obscured  his  person  and 
his  work.  The  Commonwealth  failed  because  of  the 
lack  of  intelligence  in  the  mass  of  the  people,  and 
the  selfishness  and  bitter  hatred  of  freedom  in  re- 
ligion or  in  politics  of  the  intelligent  few.  Never 
did  man,  forced  by  circumstances  into  a  position  of 
supreme  power,  have  such  intractable  material  to 
deal  with,  and  not  the  least  of  these  unmouldable 
elements  were  the  "cranks  "  of  all  sorts  who  ranged 
themselves  nominally  under  his  banner.  The  Com- 
monwealth failed  with  the  death  of  its  spring  of  life, 
but  while  it  lasted  England  was  lifted  to  a  power  in 
the  world  which  it  never  enjoyed  before,  and  the 
ruler  was  feared,  respected,  and  obeyed  by  kings, 
sovereigns,  and  princes,  as  English  ruler  never  has 
been  before  or  since. 

This  present  volume,  by  Dr.  George  H.  Clark,  is 
not  a  dry  biography,  not  in  any  sense  an  abridg- 
ment of  Carlyle's  noble  work,  not  a  rivulet  of  biog- 
raphy stuffed  with  English  history.  Such  was  not 
needed.  It  is  a  book  of  enthusiasm,  a  warm-hearted 
vindication  of  a  great  man,  based  upon  careful 
study,  and  backed  by  indubitable  authority,  written 
with  a  clear  American  comprehension  of  the  prin- 
ciples that  underlay  the  great  liberating  movement 
of  the  seventeenth  century  in  England.  Exactly 
such  a  book  as  this  was  needed,  written  with  fervor, 
with  courage,  and  fidelity  to  facts,  to  awaken  inter- 


INTRODUCTORY. 

est,  fix  the  judgment  upon  essentials,  and  carry  con- 
viction to  the  public  mind.  In  its  introductory 
chapters  the  author  devotes  himself  to  the  necessary 
task  of  lifting  from  his  subject  the  mass  of  lies  and 
misconceptions  which  centuries  have  heaped  upon 
it.  The  ground  cleared,  he  goes  on  to  elucidate  the 
character  and  work  of  the  man  in  all  the  depart- 
ments of  his  activity.  This,  in  the  view  of  the 
writer,  is  not  the  final  life.  In  the  reaction  now 
going  on  in  England,  which  is  certain  to  give  Crom- 
well his  just  place  in  history,  that  life  will  appear 
with  all  the  honor  due  to  the  chief  character  in 
English  public  life.  Meantime  the  second  edition 
of  this  volume  is  commended  to  the  public  in  confi- 
dence that  it  will  be  found  intensely  interesting,  and 
will  awaken  a  glow  of  admiration  for  one  of  the 
most  sturdy  and  indomitable  spirits  in  history,  the 
dictator  who  was  full  of  charity,  the  leader  who 
sought  nothing  for  himself,  the  friend  of  the  people 
who  was  not  a  demagogue.  Our  sympathy  is  with 
the  modern  spirit  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  we 
feel  that  its  ruler  was  our  kin.  In  the  list  of  world 
heroes  Cromwell's  name  stands  near  the  top;  but 
he  was  a  new  kind  of  hero  in  the  world.  "In  the 
whole  modern  history  of  Europe,"  says  Frederic 
Harrison,  "Oliver  is  the  one  ruler  into  whose  pres- 
ence no  vicious  man  could  ever  come;  whose  service 
no  vicious  man  might  enter." 

Charles  Dudley  Warner. 

IIaktford,  December,  1894. 


PREFACE. 

If  the  historians,  poets,  novelists,  biographers, 
essayists,  reviewers  and  writers  of  school  histories 
who  wrote  adversely  to  Oliver  Cromwell  between 
the  years  1660  and  1860  were  alive,  the  largest 
room  in  the  British  Museum  Library  would  not 
hold  them.  For  those  who,  between  the  years 
named,  did  partial  justice  to  Oliver's  memory  a 
small  alcove  would  suffice.  In  that  alcove  would 
be  writers  like  Nathan  Ben  Saddi,  who  suggests 
that  the  Protector  was  both  a  '-'righteous  man" 
and  a  "  r.ogue ; "  and  Smollet,  who  says  that  he 
was  a  "  compound  of  villainy  and  virtue."  Within 
those  two  hundred  years  Macaulay,  with  one  ex- 
ception, was  the  only  great  writer  who  justly 
measured  and  fairly  described  the  Protector.  The 
exception  was  Thomas  Carlyle. 

Carlyle,  by  five  years  of  patient  and  impatient 
toil,  has  made  it  possible  for  such  books  as  the 
present  one  to  be  written;  and  yet,  while  making 
much  use  of  the  "  Letters  and  Speeches,"  I  have 
made  but  little  use  of  the  elucidations  of  this  great 
biographer. 

In  the  library  of  Trinity  College,  Hartford,  is  a 


PREFACE. 

remarkable  collection  of  old  folios  relating  to  Eng- 
land's civil  wars,  in  which  may  be  found  the  Clar- 
endon "  Letters/*'  the  Clarendon  '•  State  Papers,"'  the 
Thurloe  "  State  Papers,"'  Dugdale,  Rushworth,  Xal- 
son,  etc.  These  six  works  contain  a  large  part  of 
the  material  from  which  the  histories  of  the  Com- 
monwealth and  the  Protectorate  have  been  made. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  within  the  twenty  thousand 
folio  pages  of  these  volumes  there  is  not  to  be 
found  one  charge  adverse  to  Cromwell  which  is 
supported  by  credible  evidence.  The  vilification  of 
the  Protector,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  allega- 
tions, the  most  important  of  which  are  refuted  in 
the  following  pages,  is  limited  to  the  nicknames  with 
which  he  was  branded  :  such  names  as  "  Catiline," 
"Tiberius,"  "Nero,"  "  Domitian,"  "Devil,"  etc. 

It  was  natural  that  royalists  who  had  been  ex- 
cluded from  English  politics  for  many  years,  and 
who  had  been  in  exile  and  in  poverty,  should  re- 
sort to  calumny  after  Oliver  was  dead  ;  but  it  is 
strange  that  with  a  few  false  statements  and  the 
use  of  opprobrious  titles,  they  should  have  suc- 
ceeded in  making  the  greatest  and  the  purest  ruler 
of  his  country  the  most  infamous  of  all  on  the 
pages  of  modern  history.  With  the  help,  however, 
of  David  Hume  they  have  done  so. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  only  documents 
tin-owing  light  on  Cromwell  were  published,  or 
were  in  ni;i nusi-ri j>t.  prior  to  the  year  17<N).  Tarts 
of  this  old  material,  including  Pepys's  Diary,  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  •■  Memoirs,"  and  mosl  til'  1 1 Let! 


PREFACE. 

and  Speeches,"  are  reoent  acquisitions ;  but  all 
writings  of  authority  relating  to  the  Protector  were 
either  in  print  or  in  manuscript  by  the  year  1G08, 
when  Ludlow's  "  Memoirs  "  were  published.  Those 
who  wrote  after  that  date  simply  gave  their  opinions 
based  on  what  they  had  read.  This  remark  applies 
to  all  historians  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
centuries. 

It  should  also  be  remembered  that  outside  of 
newspapers  and  pamphlets  published  during  the  life- 
time of  Cromwell,  the  poetry  of  a  few  writers,  the 
praise  of  Maidstone  and  of  Milton,  there  was  almost 
nothing  produced  for  half  a  century  that  was  not 
condemnatory.  After  the  restoration  of  Charles 
II.  the  name  and  memory  of  the  Protector  rested 
chiefly  on  the  attestations  of  royalist  enemies  ; 
but  not  wholly,  for  two  or  three  Republicans,  in- 
cited by  military  or  political  disappointment,  made 
the  charge  of  duplicity. 

Cromwell's  best-known  title,  hypocrite,  was  so 
stamped  on  him,  and  so  embodied  in  all  kinds  of 
English  literature,  that  it  was  almost  universally 
believed  to  be  a  just  stigma,  until  the  "  Letters 
and  Speeches  "  were  produced  by  Carlyle  in  the 
year  1846.  Since  that  date  the  real  Cromwell, 
wise,  true,  pure,  noble,  has  been  recognized,  and 
books  wholly  favorable  to  him  have  been  written  ; 
but  to  a  large  minority,  if  not  to  the  majority  of 
readers,  he  is  still  the  "bad  man,"  the  "artful 
politician"  and  the  "atrocious  conspirator"  de- 
picted by  Clarendon  and  other  historians. 


PREFACE. 

"  I  hate  Cromwell,"  said  a  friend  to  me.  "Have 
you  ever  read  his  speeches  and  letters  ?  "  I  asked. 
"  Xo,  I  wish  to  hate  him." 

To  the  present  writer,  Oliver  is  the  most  interest- 
ing man  who  has  ever  had  connection  with  the 
English  Government ;  more  competent  judges  have 
pronounced  him  the  ablest  ruler  who  has  governed 
England. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  the  Eev.  Edward  E.  Hale, 
D.  D. ;  to  Mr.  Frank  B.  Gay,  of  the  "Watkinson 
Library,  Hartford  ;  to  Charles  J.  Hoadley,  LL.  D. 
State  Librarian  of  Connecticut ;  to  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Hart,  D.  D.,  Professor  in  Trinity  College ;  to  the 
Eev.  George  Williamson  Smith.  President  of  Trin- 
ity College;  to  my  brother,  the  Et.  Eev.  Thomas 
M.  Clark,  Bishop  of  Ehode  Island,  for  courtesies 
rendered,  and  to  the  Et.  Eev.  Phillips  Brooks, 
Bishop  of  Massachusetts,  who  has  kindly  allowed 
pictures  from  his  collection  to  be  reproduced  in 
this  book. 

George  H.  Clark. 

Hartford,  Coxx.,  April  29,  1892. 


CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER    I. 

DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 
-r     **     /i    .' 

Misapprehension  of  Cromwell's  character. — True  esti- 
mate of  the  man.  —  Walter  Scott's  picture  of  him  in 
"  Woodstock."  —  Disclosures  of  Pepys's  Diary.  —  Dr. 
Dates  on  the  "  Late  Troubles  in  England."  —  Silence 
of  the  Puritans  in  the  reign  of  William  III.  —  Inscrip- 
tion in  Westminster  Abbey  suppressed. — John  Banks's 
book  in  1739.  — James  Heath's  "  Flagellum."  —  Wal- 
ler, Dryden  and  South's  change  of  base.  —  John  Cleave- 
land's  verses  and  subsequent  career.  —  Cowley's 
ghostly  visions.  —  Jeffrey's  review  in  180S.  —  Ma- 
caulay's  boyish  scrawls.  —  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  "  Me- 
moirs."—  Ludlow's  attack.  —  Hume's  misrepresenta- 
tions. —  Carlyle's  discovery  of  letters  and  speeches.  — 
Guizot's  view  of  Cromwell. — Change  of  public  opin- 
ion.—  Service  appended  to  the  English  Prayer  Book 
in  1837. — Recently  expunged  .... 


CHAPTER   II. 

THOMAS    CARLYLE. 


Carlyle's     rectification     of    the    popular    sentiment.  — 
Froude's   testimony.  —  Carlyle's   fresh   material   and 


/ 


CONTENTS. 

change  of  design.  —  Emerson's  discovery  of  Carlyle.  — 
Taine's  opinion  of  Cromwell.  —  Seventeenth  century 
Puritans  as  usually  depicted.  —  No  faithful  pictures  of 
the  royalists.  —  Lord  Thurlow's  remarkable  state- 
ment .........  30 

CHAPTER   III. 

EARLY    LIFE. 

Oliver's  boyhood.  —  Early  offense  and  church  discipline. 
—  His  family  not  obscure. — King  James  visits  his 
godfather.  — Oliver's  father  and  mother.  —  His  home 
training. — Style  of  talk.  —  Dr.  Reard's  influence. — 
.Marriages  in  the  family.  —  Absurd  stories  of  "  Carrion 
Heath."  —  Education.  —  Sports. — His  uncle's  sumptu- 
ous house.  —  Funeral  of  his  grandfather,  Sir  Henry 
Cromwell.  — Second  visit  of  James  I.  —  Knights  cre- 
ated.—  Great  display. —  The  host  impoverished  by 
the  king's  visit.  —  The  brewery  business.  —  Oliver's 
alienation  from  his  uncle.  —  Return  from  Cambridge 
after  his  father's  death.  —  Royalist  slanders.  —  Studies 
law  in  London.  —  Marriage.  —  Return  to  farmer's  life 
in  Huntingdon. 41 

CHAPTER   IV. 

FARMER. 

Twenty  years  of  farming  life.  —  Influences  of  the  re- 
gion and  associates.  —  Alva's  butcheries.  —  Refugees 
change  the  style  of  agriculture  and  other  industries.  — 
Association  with  Dutch  settlers.  —  The  friend  of  the 
poor.  —  A  tolerably  successful  farmer.  —  Nicknamed 
"  Lord  of  the  Fens."  —  Loses  his  temper.  —  Habits  of 
life.  —  Ambition  not  yet  kindled.  —  Sir  John  Elliot's 


CONTENTS. 

death  in  the  Tower.  —  Cromwell  a  silent  member  of 
the  Parliament  of  162S.  — Eleven  years  to  reflect  upon 
what  he  heard  there.  —  Reappears  in  the  Parliament 
of  1640.  —  Removal  to  Ely.  —  Dugdale's  story. — 
Cromwell's  letter  to  Mrs.  St.  John.  —  Carlyle's  com- 
ments        .........  60 

CHAPTER   V. 

WARRIOR. 

The  soldier  as  distinct  from  the  statesman.  —  Real  causes 
of  the  civil  war.  —  No  serious  opposition  under  Henry 
VIII.  and  Elizabeth. — The  Puritans  in  1581. — Bill 
for  a  "  Fast  in  the  House,"  and  "  Sermons." —  Froude's 
view  as  to  the  saving  of  the  Church. — The  day  of 
vengeance.  — Cromwell  silent  as  yet. —  Not  prominent 
till  he  became  a  recruiting  officer.  —  Gradual  rise  of  the 
rebellion.  —  A  war  for  prerogative. — The  crisis  pre- 
cipitated.—  Rally  of  the  leaders. — Cromwell's  ap- 
pearance in  the  Commons.  —  Seizes  a  magazine.  — 
Made  captain  of  "Troup  67." —  Enters  upon  his  he- 
roic career  at  the  age  of  forty-three.  —  Edgehill  battle. 

—  Reorganization  of  the  army.  —  Series  of  successes. 

—  Elevation  in  military  rank. — Narrow  escape  from 
death.  —  Marston  Moor.  —  Battle  of  Newbury.  — 
General  in  command  charged  with  weakness.  — "  Self 
Denying  Ordinance"  and  "  New  Model." — Cromwell 
not  to  be  dispensed  with.  —  Encounter  at  Naseby.  — 
Cromwell  free  from  limitations.  —  End  of  the  first  civil 
war.  —  Cromwell  and  the  Scotch  army.  —  Great 
Preston  victory.  —  The  Irish  war.  —  Apology  for 
Cromwell's  severity.  —  Contest  with  the  Scotch  Pres- 
byterians. —  Fairfax  declines  to  lead  the  army.  — 
Cromwell  made  commander-in-chief.  —  Battle  of  Dun- 
bar. —  Letter  to  his  wife.  —  Battle  of  Worcester.  — 
Cromwell's  last  battle  in  the  field 78 

B 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER   VI. 

PARLIAMENT   AND   KINGSHIP. 

Parliament  of  162S.  —  Cromwell's  speech.  —  Parliament 
ends  and  he  goes  back  to  his  farm.  —  Sent  to  the  Par- 
liament of  1640  by  the  town  of  Cambridge.  —  The 
"Bishop's  War." —  Forced  loans. —  Scots  and  English 
not  disposed  to  fight.  —  The  Long  Parliament.  —  Sent 
again  by  the  town  of  Cambridge.  —  A  member  till  its 
close  in  1653.  —  Member  of  many  committees.  —  Op- 
position to  the  Episcopal  Church.  —  Archbishop  Laud. 
—  Beverning's  letter  to  the  States  General.  —  Lon- 
doners petition  for  the  restoration  of  the  king.  —  Crom- 
well between  1646  and  1649.  —  Watching  the  course  of 
events.  — Negotiates  with  the  king  and  gives  him  good 
advice.  —  The  king  plays  a  game  of  his  own.  —  Es- 
capes to  the  Isle  of  Wight.  — Cromwell  clings  to  the 
hope  of  a  compromise.  —  Proofs  of  his  want  of  ambi- 
tion. —  The  Garter  offered  to  him.  —  Danger  of  losing 
everything. — The  one  personal  question  in  1648. — 
Prayer  meeting  in  Windsor  Castle. — Polity  of  the 
Puritans.  —  Cromwell  as  a  regicide.  —  England  de- 
clared a  Commonwealth. — Cromwell  named  Pro- 
tector. —  Returns  to  London.  —  Grand  reception.  — 
Hampton  Court  assigned  as  his  residence. — Com- 
ments of  Frederick  Harrison.  —  Parliament  tries  to 
perpetuate  itself.  —  Cromwell  breaks  up  "  The  Rump" 
and  sends  the  members  home.  — Things  go  on  with  a 
Constable  at  the  head  of  affairs. — The  new  Parlia- 
ment attempts  many  things  and  fails.  —  Cromwell  be- 
comes Usurper  as  a  matter  of  necessity.  —  Plots 
against  his  life.  —  Protectorate  Parliament  called  in 
1654.  —  He  takes  strong  ground. — Meanwhile  he  is 
engaged  in  getting  up  a  navy.  —  Parliament  ends  with 
Cromwell's    sending    the    members  home.  —  Another 


CONTENTS. 

Parliament  in  1656.  —  His  fifth  speech.  —  The  king- 
ship offered  him.  — Great  spectacle  at  Whitehall. — 
Title  of  king  declined. — Admiral  Blake's  achieve- 
ments on  the  sea.  — General  recognition  of  Cromwell's 
ascendancy.  —  Cardinal  Mazarin's  attentions.  —  Order 
issued  in  the  first  year  of  Victoria's  reign  for  anew  ser- 
vice in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. — Afterward 
rescinded  by  Act  of  Parliament-  —  Cromwell  and  Wil- 
liam III.  the  men  who  deserve,  thanks  and  praise      .         107 

CHAPTER   VII. 

FOREIGN    POLICY. 

Position  of  England  under  Cromwell. —  Sudden  recog- 
nition by  the  great  European  powers.  — Proposed  alli- 
ance on  the  part  of  Spain  and  France.  —  Cardinal 
Mazarin's  deference.  —  Cromwell's  assertion  of  dignity 
in  foreign  courts.  —  The  lame  ambassador  from  the 
States  General. — Lords  of  His  Imperial  Majesty  of 
Russia  must  take  off  their  hats. — The  Czar  gives  a 
dinner  to  Prideaux.  —  Portugal,  Tuscany,  Venice, 
Genoa,  Tunis  and  Algiers  pay  homage. — Great  ser- 
vices of  Blake  and  Thurloe,  one  at  sea  and  the  other  on 
land.  —  John  Thurloe's  volumes  of  "  State  Papers."  — 
Walter  Scott's  estimate  of  those  papers  in  1S31.  — 
Cromwell's  career  for  the  commercial  and  material  in- 
terests of  England.  —  The  great  protector  of  Protest- 
antism.—  Treaties  of  peace  with  Denmark,  Sweden 
and  Holland. — Admiral  Blake's  wonderful  career. — 
Atrocities  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy  stopped.  —  Inter- 
ference in  behalf  of  the  Huguenots  at  Nismes.  —  Wm. 
Lockhart's  treaty  with  Louis.  —  While  England  rejoices 
over  the  acquisition  of  Dunkirk,  CrormVfell  is  at  his 
daughter's  bedside.  —  Effort  to  unite  Protestant  Europe. 
—  The  only  English  Protector  the  N.  E.  colonies  ever 


CONTENTS. 

had.  —  Scheme  to  remove  the  colonists  to  a  more  con- 
genial clime.  — The  year  1S99,  should  be  recognized  by 
Massachsuetts  and  Connecticut         ....         157 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

The  family.  —  Carlyle's  opinion  of  Richard,  the  elder 
son.  —  Cromwell  always  busy.  — Life  at  Whitehall.  — 
Dinner  given  to  the  Dutch  ambassadors.  —  Singing  of 
metrical  Psalms.  —  Scene  at  Whitehall  when  peace 
was  proclaimed.  —  A  plot  discovered  to  kill  Cromwell. 

—  Contrast  between  Whitehall  and  other  European 
courts.  —  Saintliness  of  Cromwell's  life. — His  chari- 
ties.—  His  library. — Kindness  to  the  medalist. — 
Dinner  of  clergymen  at  Whitehall. — Great  time  at 
Whitehall.  —  Interview  with  banished  Jews. — Slips 
some  of  them  into  London.  —  Ludlow  at  Whitehall. 

—  Cromwell's  domestic  life  disturbed.  — Inauguration 
as  Protector.  —  Plot  of  the  royalists.  — The  Governor 
of  the  Tower  marches  with  artillery  into  the  city.  — 
Victory  follows  victory.  —  The  Puritan  stands  front  to 

the  world.  —  Domestic  afflictions. — Death       .         .         183 

CHAPTER   IX. 

CROMWELL     LETTERS. 

Letter  to  Mr.  Downhall  and  Carlyle's  comments.  —  Dr. 
Wells.  —  Mr.  Benson. —  Letterto  Mrs.  St.  John,  1638. 
•  — Letters  to  his  son-in-law.  —  Letter  to  his  wife. — 
Refutation  of  the  charge  of  hypocrisy.  —  Letter  to  his 
wife  after  the  battle  of  Dunbar.  — The  war  letters.  — 
Letters  of  comfort  and  conferring  honors.  —  Re\ 
tions  made  by  his  correspondence.  —  Lettei  oJ  explan- 
ation to  Anthony  Hungerford,  Esq.  —  Correspondence 


CONTENTS. 

as  to  his  son's  marrhge.  —  Remarkable  letter  to  Mr. 
Mayor,  1650. — The  government  in  Ireland.  —  The  Oli- 
ver Cromwell  medal.  —  Plea  for  the  artist.  — Cardinal 
Mazarin.  —  Breaking  up  of  the  Long  Parliament  and 
calling  of  the  Little  Parliament. —  His  modest  speech. — 
Wishes  to  retire. —  Policy  asjProtector. —  Toleration. — 
Letters  to  Am.  Colonies. —  Proposals  to  remove  the  col- 
onists from  N.  E. — Eliot  Warburton's  conjecture     .     208 

CHAPTER   X. 

CHARACTER. 

Only  positive  evidence  adverse  to  Cromwell's  character. 

—  Groundless  charges.  —  Brought  up  a  Low  Church- 
man.—  Laud's  appointment  as  Archdeacon  of  Hun- 
tingdon.—  Cromwell  defamed.  —  Testimonials  in  his 
favor.  —  John  Banks's  book.  — John  Maidstone's  letter 
to  Governor  Winthrop.  — Rev.  Mr.  Hooke's  letter.  — 
Milton's  testimony. — Gardiner's  History. — Strong 
verdict  for  Cromwell. — Taine  as  contrasted  with 
Guizot. —  Buckle's  opinion. — Cromwell's  goodness. 

—  Benevolence. — Tenderness.  —  Sense  of  justice. — 
Righteous  anger.  —  Richard  Garnett's  words.  —  Fred- 
erick Harrison's  summary.  —  Dean  Stanley's  testi- 
mony. —  Bishop  Burnet's  estimate.  — Thurioe's  reply 
to  Charles  II.  —  What  Lord  Clarendon  said  of  Mont- 
rose. —  Macaulay  the  champion  of  the  Protector.  — 
Indifference  to  his  literary  reputation. — Religion  of 
Charles  II.  and  of  Cromwell. — The  Boston  Adver- 
tiser of  1846.  —  Slanders  connected  with  the  death  of 
Charles.  —  Article  in  the  last  Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica. — Justice  beginning  to  be  done  to  Cromwell's 
memory. — Carlyle's  book  not  likely  to  be  generally- 
read. —  New  materials. — Call  for  a  new  life  of 
Cromwell. — Summing  up  of  his  character        .  .  235 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


OLIVER  CROMWELL  (from  Sir  Peter  Lely's  portrait)    .  Frontispiece 

OLIVER  CROMWELL  (from  Walker's  portrait)  .      .      .  Facing  page     38 
JOHN   HAMPDEN 


GREAT    SEAL    OF    PROTECTOR    OLIVER    CROM- 
WELL (obverse) 

(IUEAT    SEAL    OF     PROTECTOR    OLIVER    CROM- 
WELL  (reverse) 


SIR   HARRY   VANE 

OLIVER  CROMWELL    (from  Walker's  portrait)      .      , 

j 

HENRY   IRETON    

ADMIRAL   BLAKE       

THE   MOTHER   OF   OLIVER   CROMWELL       .       . 

DEATH-MASK    OF    OLIVER   CROMWELL       .       . 

OLIVER   CROMWELL    (from  contemporary  Dutch  en- 
graving)        

OLIVER  CROMWELL   (from  a  celebrated  print)     . 


44 

80 

82 
104 
130 
154 
168 
184 
206 

222 

242 


OLIVER  CROMWELL. 


CHAPTER   I. 

DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

I  purpose  to  tell,  in  a  plain  and  simple  way, 
the  story  of  a  hero  who  was  neglected  by  the  Puri- 
tans and  defamed  by  royalists  from  the  time  of 
the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  down  to  near  the 
present  age.  The  neglect  on  the  Puritans'  part 
is  explained  by  history ;  the  malignity  and  false- 
hoods of  writers  devoted  to  the  Stuarts  requires 
no  explanation.  j_For  nearly  thirty  years,  from 
1660  to  1688,  no  one  in  England  dared  to  pub- 
lish a  history  of  the  Protectoratej  and  after 
William  III.  came  to  the  throne,  though  danger 
of  imprisonment  and  death  for  a  true  life  of  the 
Protector  no  longer  threatened,  there  was  not  a 
writer- — Milton    and  nearly  all  those   who  had 


2  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

known  Oliver  being  dead  —  who  cared  to  face 
the  odium  which  was  sure  to  follow  a  eulogy. 
Thurloe,  one  of  the  ablest  ministers  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  had  hidden  in  the  garret 
above  his  rooms  in  Lincoln's  Inn  that  vast  col- 
lection of  papers  now  preserved  in  more  than 
six  thousand  folio  pages ;  a  mine  from  which  all 
late  historians  of  England's  Civil  War  have 
taken  materials  for  their  books.  Forty  years 
after  Oliver's  death  a  writer  whose  name  is  un- 
known, ventured  to  falsify  Ludlow's  fabrications  ; 
but  we  now  search  in  vain  for  any  book  written 
in  England  within  half  a  century  of  the  Protec- 
tor's death  in  praise  of  him.  I  And  through  the 
eighteenth  century  and  for  forty-five  years  of 
the  present  century  not  a  book  was  published 
which  did  justice  to  Cromwell.  For  nearly 
two  hundred  years  he  was  the  sport  and  derision 
of  historians,  poets  and  novelists;  sometimes  de- 
picted in  an  elaborate,  glaring  picture,  like  that 
in  Walter  Scott's  "  Woodstock  ;  "  sometimes 
branded  with  infamy  in  a  single  line,  like  that  in 
Gray's  "Elegy."  Jlis  letters,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, were  not  printed;  and  his  speeches,  full  of 
thought,  lay  dormant  through  all  that  time. 
Not  a  man  or  woman  in  England  or  in  this 
country  read  or  could  read  them. 


DEFAMATORY    Wit  ITERS.  6 

/_Xhe  only  man  who  during-  the  long  reign  of 
Charles  II.  wrote  favorably  about  Oliver  was 
Pepys.  Mr.  Pepys  was  a  man  who  was  willing 
to  sacrifice  himself,  both  under  the  Protector 
and  under  the  king.  He  was  an  officer  in  the 
Naval  Department,  and  lived  in  London.  He 
knew  Oliver,  and  he  often  met  Charles ;  met 
him  on  business,  and  in  the  parks,  and  in  White- 
hall Palace.  Mr.  Pepys  kept  a  diary.  Pie  wrote 
under  a  cipher  which  no  one  could  read  but 
himself.  After  his  interviews  with  the  king,  he 
would  go  home  and  make  pictures  of  him,  and, 
for  contrast,  pictures  of  Oliver.  If  Charles 
could  have  got  sight  of  Mr.  Pepys's  diary,  and 
have  found  an  interpreter  of  it  in  the  year  1667, 
Mr.  Pepys  would  not  only  have  lost  his  place  in 
the  navy  office,  but  he  would  have  walked  the 
streets  of  London  without  his  ears,  which  would 
have  been  to  him  a  great  calamity.  But  Charles 
did  not  get  hold  of  the  diary.  Mr.  Pepys  kept 
it  concealed  till  his  death.  It  then  got,  with 
Mr.  Pepys's  books,  into  Magdalene  College 
library,  Cambridge,  and  there  it  lay  unread  till 
about  the  year  1825.  How  strange  that  the 
only  good  words  written  about  Oliver  during  a 
period  of  twenty-five  years,  should  have  come  to 
the  light  in  this  present  century. 


4  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

Iii  one  passage  Mr.  Pepys  contrasts  the  feeble 
administration  of  the  king-  with  the  strong  ad- 
ministration of  the  Protector.  "  It  is  strange," 
he  writes,  "  how  everybody  do  nowadays  reflect 
upon  Oliver,  and  commend  him,  what  brave 
things  he  did,  and  made  all  the  neighbor  princes 
fear  him  ;  while  here,  a  man  come  in  with  all 
the  love  and  prayers  and  good  liking  of  his 
people,  hath  lost  all  so  soon,  that  it  is  a  miracle 
what  way  a  man  could  devise  to  lose  so  much  in 
so  little  time."  During  the  reign  of  James  II. 
one  would  hardly  have  dared  to  praise  Oliver 
even  under  a  cipher. 

Doctor  George  Bates,  physician  to  Charles  II., 
published,  in  1685,  a  book  on  "  The  Late  Troubles 
in  England."  This  book  is  now  in  the  library 
of  Trinity  College,  Hartford.  Carlyle  docs  not 
refer  to  it.  and  probably  never  saw  it.  Had  he 
seen  it  he  would  have  given  Bates  the  same  sort 
of  immortality  that  he  has  given  ••Carrion 
Heath,"  the  author  of  "  Flagellum,"  The 
loyalty  of  Doctor  Bates  to  the  Stuarts  is  clearly 
indicated  in  his  book.  lie  speaks  of  the  Star 
Chamber  Court,  and  the  Court  of  High  Com- 
mission as  "shining  jewels  in  the  imperial 
crown.*'  and  lie  says  that  those  who  in  the  time 
of    Charles     I.    saw    things    which    needed    to    be 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  5 

amended  in  the  government,  could  see  "joynts 
in  a  bull  rush."  After  alluding  to  this  king 
as  one  who  combined  in  his  character  the  pa- 
tience of  Job,  the  piety  of  David,  and  the  wisdom 
of  Solomon,  he  became  really  poetical  in  the 
royal  cause.  He  says  he  will  "hoist  sail  "  and 
"  launch  out  into  the  ocean  of  Charles's  virtues." 
He  then  changes  his  figure  and  says  that  he  will 
"by  a  few,  and  those  clouded  beams  "  give  "  what 
sight  he  can  of  that  Sun,"  "  the  great  defender 
of  the  laws."  He  calls  Cromwell  a  "  Blade," 
and  a  "  great  master  in  hypocrisy  and  dissimula- 
tion." He  becomes  responsible  for  the  most  as- 
tounding, incredible  lie  ever  told  by  a  historian, 
and  he  gives  the  lie  on  the  authority  of  eye-wit- 
nesses, who  told  him  of  the  deed.  He  says 
that  Cromwell  "  opened  the  coffin  "  which  con- 
tained the  dead  king,  and,  "with  his  fingers 
severed  the  head  from  the  body;"  evidently  sup- 
posing that  his  readers  would  believe  such  a  sur- 
gical operation  possible.  He  gives  particulars 
of  the  condition  of  Cromwell's  body  after  death, 
which  are  too  disgusting  to  be  repeated.  B  ut  he 
corrects  one  error,  for  which  he  should  have  full 
credit.  He  says  that  Oliver  "yielded  up  the 
ghost  about  three  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon  ; 
not  (as  was  commonly  reported)  carried    away 


6  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

by  the  Devil,  at  midnight,  but  in  clear  daylight." 
He  speaks  of  the  "  mercenary  pen  of  the  son  of 
a  certain  scrivener,  one  Milton,  a  man  of  "  livid 
and  malicious  wit,"  "employed  to  publish  a  de- 
fense of  the  king's  murder." 

Carrion  Heath  and  Buzzard  Bates,  the  earliest 
literary  champions  of  the  Stuarts,  whose  books 
were  once  the  delight  of  royalists,  who  gave  in- 
spiration to  later  historians,  and  gave  to  English 
history  a  color  and  gloss  which  lasted  for  two 
centuries,  and  which,  but  for  such  investigations 
as  Macaulay's  and  Carlyle's,  would  have  lasted 
for  two  centuries  more,  are  now,  as  authorities, 
happily  extinct.  In  their  day  they  wei-e  cele- 
brated, particularly  the  doctor,  who  was  "  a 
learned  and  eminent  physician  of  London,"  who 
had  "  an  easy  access  to  most  of  the  grandees,"  and 
whose  book,  when  "  in  writing,"  was  looked  over 
by  persons  high  in  position.  But  after  all,  every- 
thing was  not  bright  with  Doctor  Bates.  In  an 
"epilogue,"  he  says  that  "there  is  an  insolent 
defamer,  who  pretends  I  have  fathered  another 
man's  work."  Poor  doctor,  accused  of  literary 
theft!  charged  with  plagiarism!  and  such  plagi- 
arism!     Peace  to  his  ashes. 

After  William  III.  came  to  the  throne,  there 
was  no  danger  of   a    Puritan's   losing   his   life  or 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  7 

liberty  for  anything  he  might  publish  in  favor  of 
the  Protector ;  but  it  required  an  amount  of 
moral  courage  to  defend  him  which  no  one  seems 
to  have  possessed.  And  then  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  thirty  years  and  more  had  passed 
since  Oliver's  death.  A  great  deal  is  forgotten 
in  that  length  of  time.  Those  who  knew  him 
were  nearly  all  in  their  graves.  The  materials  for 
a  history,  or  even  of  a  biography,  were  limited ; 
but  doubtless  the  strong  prejudice  against  the 
Commonwealth,  and  against  Oliver,  prevented  any 
attempt  to  publish  eulogies.  To  indicate  the 
prevailing  feeling,  a  fact  may  be  given.  In  the 
year  1710,  an  engraver  was  at  work  in  West- 
minster Abbey  on  a  Latin  inscription  to  the 
memory  of  the  poet  John  Phillips.  He  came  to 
the  words  "  Uni  Miltono  Secundus"  — next  to 
Milton.  The  Dean  of  the  Abbey  stopped  the 
engraver.  That  hallowed  building  must  not  be 
desecrated  even  by  the  name  of  Milton  on  an- 
other man's  monument.  John  Phillips,  with  his 
poetry,  must  go  down  to  posterity  without  it. 

Pour  years  later,  however,  Addison  meanwhile 
having  put  into  the  "  Spectator "  some  papers 
about  John  Milton  and  his  "Paradise  Lost,"  it 
was  decided  by  another  Dean  (Atterbury,  who 
though  a  loyalist  seems  to  have  had  sense)  that  it 


8  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

would  do  no  harm  to  the  Abbey  to  have  Milton's 
name  on  John  Phillips's  monument.  Things 
sometimes  go  strangely  in  this  world.  Phillips 
the  poet,  had  a  claim  on  the  Abbey,  for  he  had 
once  made  an  attack  on  Oliver  in  a  "  Satyr 
against  Hypocrites  ;  '  but  he  was  Milton's 
nephew,  and  in  early  life  had  written  a  defense 
of  his  uncle,  whom  Wood  calls  a  "villanous 
leading  incendiary."  The  canons  and  deans  of 
Westminster,  no  doubt,  talked  a  good  deal  over 
that  "Uni  Miltono  Secunchis,"  the  relatives  and 
friends  of  the  poet,  no  doubt,  told  them  that  they 
had  better  let  the  engraver  insert  the  words  into 
the  epitaph,  and  so  John  Phillips  survives  in  the 
memory  of  men. 

Carlyle  is  usually  rather  limited  in  his  praises 
of  authors,  and  he  is  particularly  so  touching 
those  who,  before  himself,  wrote  about  Oliver  : 
but  lie  might  have  said  a  kind  word  for  John 
Banks  who,  in  the  year  1739,  published  a  book, 
in  the  preface  of  which  he  asks,  l>  whether  a 
character,  so  much  declaimed  against,  might  at 
the  distance  of  almost  a  hundred  years  be  suffered 
to  stand   tin'  lest  of  a  fail-   examination?"     It 

needed  courage  then  even    to   attempt    to    subject 

the  Protector  to  a  "  fair  examination,"  and  Banks 

should     have    some    credit    for    his    book.       And 


DEFAMATORY    "WRITERS.  9 

Carlyle,  too,  might  have  spared  Mark  Noble, 
who  put  out  his  biography  in  1787,  the  charge 
of  "extreme  imbecility,"  and  "a  judgment  for 
the  most  part  dead  asleep ; "  for  Noble,  as  his 
preface  indicates,  had  at  least  discovered  what 
other  writers  have  but  lately  learned  ;  that  Crom- 
well "  was  the  greatest  man  that  had  owed  his 
existence  to  England." 

The  chief  fountain  of  all  the  foolish  lies  that 
have  been  circulated  about  Oliver  is  the  mournful, 
brown  little  book  called  "  Flagellum "  (a  lash, 
whip,  scourge),  or  the  "  Life  and  Death  of  Oliver 
Cromwell,  the  late  Usurper,"  by  James  Heath. 
The  book  had  on  its  title  page  a  picture  of  the 
Protector  with  a  halter  about  his  neck.  Five 
editions  were  published  between  1663  and  1679  ; 
but  now  the  book  is  not  to  be  found  in  our  libra- 
ries. It  was  not  among  the  books  which  Carlyle 
bequeathed  to  Harvard  University,  and  probably 
he  used  the  copy  which  has  been  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum  Library.  For  nearly  a  hun- 
dred years  royalist  readers  found  consolation  in 
"Flagellum ;  "  but  when  Hume  appeared  and  put 
into  eloquent  language  the  fabrications  which  it 
contained,  and  added  to  them,  Heath  passed  into 
oblivion. 

There  were  writers  of  Oliver's  day  who  praised 


10  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

bini  while  he  was  living-,  or  soon  after  his  death, 
who  afterward  defamed  him,  and  among  those 
writers  were  Waller,  Dryden  and  South.  Wal- 
ler, in  the  year  1643,  was  banished  from  England 
for  engaging'  in  a  plot  which  cost  some  men  their 
lives.  Ten  years  later,  when  Cromwell  was  in 
power,  he  kindly  permitted  liim  to  return  from 
exile,  and  he  then  presented  to  the  Protector, 
says  George  Craik,  "  one  of  the  most  graceful 
pieces  of  adulation  ever  offered  by  poetry  to 
power ;  "  but  when  Charles  II.  returned  Waller 
forgot  or  overlooked  the  generosity  of  Cromwell, 
and  welcomed  the  king  to  his  father's  throne. 
The  poem  inspired  by  the  restoration,  however, 
was  inferior  to  that  which  his  release  from  banish- 
ment called  forth  ;  and  it  is  related  that  Charles 
told  the  poet  that  his  panegyric  was  not  so  good 
as  Cromwell's  ;  to  which  Waller  replied  that 
poets  succeeded  better  in  fiction  than  in  writing 
truth. 

Dryden.  when  Richard  became  Protector,  wrote 
a  long  poem  on  Cromwell,  in  which  are  found 
the  following  lines  : 

■■  His  grandeur  he  derived  from  heaven  alone, 
For  lie  was  -real  ere  furl  line  made  him  so, 

And  war.-,  thai  rise  like  mists  against  the  sun. 
Made  him  inn  greaterseem,  not  greater  grow. 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  11 

"  His  ashes  in  a  peaceful  urn  shall  rest, 
His  name,  a  great  example,  stands  to  show 

How  strangely  high  endeavors  may  be  blessed 
When  piety  and  valor  jointly  go." 

Dryden's  changes  and  apostacies  came  easily 
and  naturally  to  him,  we  believe  ;  but  these  verses 
were  probably  a  true  expression  of  his  emotions 
at  the  time  when  he  wrote  them,  soon  after  the 
death  of  the  Protector.  The  lines  are  not  mere 
poetry. 

Oliver  was  by  nature  a  grand  man.  He  was 
great  before  success  made  him  appear  so.  Wars 
did  not  make  him  greater  grow,  only  made  him 
seem  greater  to  the  common  eye  ;  and  in  spite  of 
the  stigmas  cast  upon  it,  his  name  a  great  ex- 
ample stands,  and  will  stand,  to  show  how  high 
endeavors  may  be  blessed.  England  is  reaping 
to-day  fruits  from  the  seed  which  he  sowed.  We 
in  this  country  are  reaping  blessings  from  the 
changes  which  he  and  the  Long  Parliament 
secured. 

Dryden  greeted  Charles  on  his  return  with  his 
"  Astraea  Redux  ;"  but  during  the  reign  of  this 
king  he  wrote,  he  says,  only  one  play  for  himself  ; 
all  the  rest,  nearly  thirty  in  number,  were,  he 
admits,  "  sacrifices  to  the  vitiated  taste  of  the 
age." 


12  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

Robert  South,  a  student  at  Oxford,  wrote  a 
eulogistic  poem  on  Oliver  telling  him  that  he 
"only  could  the  swelling  waves  restrain,"  and 
lay  "  fetters  on  the  conquered  main ;  "  but  when 
South  had  become  Doctor  South,  chaplain  to 
royalty,  he  drew  in  a  sermon  a  picture  of  Oliver 
which  delighted  the  king  and  his  court.  "  Who," 
he  said,  "  that  had  beheld  such  a  bankrupt, 
beggarly  fellow  as  Cromwell  first  entering  the 
Parliament  House,  with  a  threadbare,  torn  coat, 
and  a  greasy  hat  (and  perhaps  neither  of  them 
paid  for),  could  have  suspected  that  in  course  of 
so  few  years  he  should,  by  the  murder  of  one 
king  and  the  banishment  of  another,  ascend  the 
throne,  be  invested  with  royal  robes,  and  want 
nothing  of  the  state  of  a  king  but  the  changing 
of  his  hat  into  a  crown." 

We  now  come  to  John  Cleaveland,  who  for 
many  years  was  supposed  to  be  greatest  among 
living  English  poets,  and  who  was  the  "  first 
champion  of  the  royal  cause  who  wrote  in  Eng- 
lish verse." 

From  the  beginning  of  the  war  to  the  end  he 
was  a  royalist.  Next  to  Cowley  he  claims  our 
sympathy,  and  he  commands  our  respect.  His 
picture  is  not  flattering,  but  it  was  honestly 
drawn. 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  13 

"  What's  a  Protector?     He's  a  stately  thing 

That  apes  it,  in  the  non-age  of  a  king; 

A  tragic  actor,  Cajsar  in  a  clown, 

He's  a  brass  farthing,  stamped  with  a  crown! 

"  In  fine,  he's  one  we  must  Protector  call, 
From  whom  the  King  of  kings  protect  us  all." 

Cleaveland  was  active  in  the  royal  cause  in 
1655,  and  he  found  himself  in  prison.  A 
prisoner,  he  appealed  directly  to  Oliver.  He 
wrote  a  letter  to  him,  and  wrote  it  in  a  spirit 
that  would  commend  itself  to  a  large-minded  and 
generous-hearted  man.  There  was  no  apology  in 
the  letter.  It  bore  no  resemblance  to  letters 
which  many  Englishmen,  including  Lord  Bacon, 
had  written  to  get  themselves  out  of  trouble. 
"  For  the  service  of  his  majesty,"  he  said,  "  if  it 
be  objected,  I  am  so  far  from  excusing  it  that  I 
am  ready  to  allege  it  in  my  vindication.  I  cannot 
conceit  that  my  fidelity  to  my  Prince  should  taint 
me  in  your  opinion;  I  should  rather  expect  it 
should  recommend  me  to  your  favor.  The  truth 
is,  I  am  not  qualified  enough  to  serve  him  ;  all  I 
could  do  was  to  bear  a  part  in  his  sufferings,  and 
to  give  myself  to  be  crushed  by  his  fall."  Had 
Cromwell  possessed  the  spirit  of  not  a  few  Euro- 
pean rulers  the  letter  would  have  been  unheeded, 
or  would  have  led  to  a  closer  oversight  of  the 


14  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

prisoner,  but  he  had  nothing-  little  in  his  nature. 
The  tone  of  the  letter  must  have  touched  him  — 
the  poet  had  his  freedom. 

Lord  Clarendon,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Rebel- 
lion," admits  that  the  Protector  had  courage,  in- 
dustry, judgment  and  a  wonderful  understand- 
ing ;  but  he  ends  his  eulogy  thus  :  "  He  had  all 
the  wickedness  against  which  damnation  is  de- 
nounced, and  for  which  hell-fire  is  prepared," 
and,  "  he  will  be  looked  on  by  posterity 

.a  brave,  bad  man." 

Abraham  Cowley's  vision  touching  Oliver  is  a 
reTnarkable  one.  A  kind  of  governing  demon  of 
the  Protector  appears  first  to  the  poet,  and  then 
Cromwell  himself,  or  rather  his  ghost,  appears. 
In  the  dialogue  which  ensues,  the  demon  ad- 
vances arguments  which  ( Jowley  finds  it  difficult 
to  answer  ;   which  he  cannot  successfully  answer. 

"  What  more  extraordinary,"  says  the  demon, 
"  than  that  a  person  of  mean  birth,  no  eminent 
qualities  of  body  or  mind,  should  succeed  in  the 
(Kst  ruction  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  most 
solid    monarchies    upon    earth,"  "  put 

his  prince  and  master  to  an  open  and  infamous 
death,  banish  that  numerous  and  strongly  allied 
family  :  trample  upon  Parliament  as  he  pleased, 
spurn  them  out  of  doors  when  he  grew  weary  of 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  15 

them  ;  oppress  his  enemies  by  arms,  and  all  his 
friends  afterwards  by  artifice  ;  serve  all  parties 
patiently  for  a  while,  and  command  them  victori- 
ously at  last ;  be  feared  and  courted  by  all 
foreign  princes,  and  adopted  a  brother  to  the 
gods  of  the  earth  ;  call  Parliaments  with  a  word 
of  his  pen,  scatter  them  with  the  breath  of  his 
month  ;  have  the  estates  and  lives  of  three  king- 
doms as  much  at  his  disposal  as  was  the  little 
inheritance  of  his  father  ;  be  as  noble  and  liberal 
in  the  spending-  of  them  (the  estates),  and  be- 
queath all  this  with  one  word  to  his  posterity  ; 
to  die  with  peace  at  home  and  triumph  abroad  ; 
to  be  buried  among  kings  with  more  than  royal 
solemnity,  and  to  leave  a  name  behind  hjm  not 
to  be  extinguished  with  the  whole  world;"    \ 

This  demon  was  not  far  amiss  in  partsof  his 
picture. 

But  now  Cowley  himself  encounters  Oliver; 
but  Oliver,  the  poet  admits,  takes  what  he  says 
coolly,  and  even  mirthfully.  The  poet  sees  "  a 
figure  taller  than  a  giant,  the  body  naked,  the 
battle  of  Naseby  painted  on  the  breast,  the  eyes 
like  burning  brass,  three  crowns  of  red-hot  metal 
on  the  head,  a  bloody  sword  in  one  hand  ;  in  the 
other  hand  acts,  ordinances,  protestations,  cove- 
nants, engagements,  declarations,  remonstrances." 


16  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

Cowley  was  not  at  all  daunted,  lie  tells  us,  by 
this  apparition.  He  faces  the  figure  bravely, 
and  calls  out  to  it,  "  What  art  thou  ?  "  Oliver, 
being-  now  a  spirit,  answers  in  a  boastful  tone, 
unusual  with  him  when  on  earth.  He  answers, 
"  I  am  called  the  Northwest  Principality,  His 
Highness,  the  Protector  of  England,  Scotland 
and  Ireland."  The  poet  and  this  monstrous 
creation  of  his  fancy  hold  further  intercourse ; 
and  then  Cowley  says :  "  Here  I  stopped,  and 
my  pretended  Protector,  who  I  expected  would 
have  been  very  angry,  fell  a-laughing  at  the  sim- 
plicity of  my  discourse."  No  wonder  that  Oliver 
thought  that  Cowley  had  made  a  ridiculous  pict- 
ure, with  the  red-hot  crowns,  brass  eyes  and 
Naseby  battle  painted  on  the  breast,  and  laughed 
at  the  poet's  simplicity  ;  the  wonder  is  that  Cowley 
should  have  printed  such  a  dream.  Kind  ami- 
able poet !  we  wish  you  had  been  under  the  Pro- 
tector's wing,  as  Milton  was  ;  but  fate  called  you 
to  kiss  the  hand  of  the  meanest  of  the  Stuarts. 

In  the  year  1808,  six  years  after  the  first  num- 
ber of  Hie  ww  Edinburgh  Review  "  came  out,  Francis 
Jeffrey,  its  chief  editor,  expressed  his  doubt 
whether  any  historian  "had  given  a  more  just  or 
satisfactory  account  of  this  extraordinary  person- 
age,  Oliver    Cromwell,  than    Mrs.    Butchinson, 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  17 

whose  husband,  the  Colonel,  had  '  very  early  dis- 
covered to  possess  the  profoundest  duplicity.' ' 

When  he  wrote  this  passage,  Jeffrey  knew  no 
more  of  Cromwell  than  the  precocious  little 
Macaulay,  then  eight  years  old,  who,  in  1807, 
wrote  in  his  epitome  of  history  that  Oliver  "was 
an  unjust  and  wicked,  man."  This  "  boyish 
scrawl,"  says  Trevelyan,  may  still  be  read  ;  the 
boy  lived  to  throw  light  on  the  Commonwealth 
and  on  Cromwell. 

Two  things  Mrs.  Hutchinson  would  have  left 
out  of  her  "  Memoirs,"  had  she  been  a  shrewd 
woman.  She  would  have  omitted  the  fact  that 
General  Cromwell  did  not  estimate  highly  the 
soldierly  qualities  of  her  husband.  That  was  a 
discovery  made  by  Colonel  Hutchinson  before 
his  wife  heard  of  Oliver's  "  duplicity."  It  hurt 
Mrs.  Hutchinson's  feelings  to  think  that  the 
general  of  the  English  army  did  not  appreciate 
Colonel  Hutchinson  as  an  officer.  She  blurts  out 
her  feelings  about  this  matter  in  her  "  Memoirs ;  " 
she  had  better  have  written  nothing  about  them 
if  she  expected  readers  to  believe  her  aspersions 
on  Oliver  and  his  family.  But  she  had  another 
and  deeper  grievance,  which  shall  be  told  in  her 
own  words. 

"  The   Protector   finding   him    (Col.    H.)    too 


If  DZ  TOBY    WEITEL-. 

:  -:  at  ::»  be  wrought  upon  i  serve  his  tyranny, 
had  resolv  -  -  ire  his  person,  lest  he  should 
head  the  people,  who  n        g  his 

bondage.     But  though  '         -  certainly  eonfiri; 

C       ..-"..  how  niuch  h  afraid  of  his 

hon  sty    ind  freedom,  and  that  he  was  res 
not  i      let  him  longer  be  at  liberty,  ore 

his  guards  apprehend  the  Colon  ..         :h  imj 
oned  himself,  and  confined  all  L :  ion 

and  all  his  cruel  designs  into  the  narrow  comi 
of  a  gra" 

The  allusion  in  this  pa-     _     t     *  !  -olu- 

-     -     ure  the  person  of  Colonel  Hutehir. 
and  deprive   him  of  his    lib'  he  should 

-ad  the  people  and  attack  the  government." 
throws  light  on  the  good  wife's  appreciation  of 
her  husband-  nd  military  abili: 

would  be  int-  ig  to  know  if  she  reflected  at 

all  on  the  probable  result  of  a  conflict  1 
the  Colonel  at  the  head  of  "the   people."  and 
Oliver  commanding  the  Irons 

Butchins       -     V        ire,"  instead  of  being 
-  touching    Jeffrey's    "extra 

na  profoundest  duplic: 

are  wholly   unworthy  of    not: ce.      They   contain 
of  a  woman  who  had  within    her 
irmountable  prejudi         I  mnded  on  a 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  19 

tion  that  her  husband  had  not  been  rightly  valued 
as  an  army  officer  ;  they  contain  the  unjust  cen- 
sures of  a  writer  whose  virulence  reached  not 
only  the  immediate  object  of  her  aversion,  the 
Protector,  but  his  wife  and  children,  and  the 
court  at  "Whitehall,  which  is  described  as  "full 
of  sin  and  vanity."  She  tells,  however,  one 
thing  which  is  either  favorable  for  Oliver,  or 
damaging  to  the  Puritan  clergy :  "  Almost  all 
the  ministers  everywhere,"  she  informs  us,  "  fell 
in  and  courted  this  beast." 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Ludlow  have  done  more 
to  create  wrong  impressions  about  Oliver  than 
all  other  Puritan  writers.  Indeed,  we  are  not 
aware  that  any  old  books,  written  by  Puritans 
decidedly  adverse  to  the  Protector,  are  in  exist- 
ence, though  scattered  passages  left  by  his  Pres- 
byterian, Anabaptist  and  other  opposers  can  be 
found.  It  has  seemed  to  the  writer  remarkable 
that  so  few  of  his  contemporaries,  great  men, 
members  of  Parliament,  army  officers,  came  into 
collision  with  him  ;  that  so  few  have  left  records 
of  their  opposition  to  him. 

Of  those  who  openly  opposed  the  Protector 
and  the  Protectorate,  Ludlow  is  the  most  con- 
spicuous. He  was  twenty  years  younger  than 
Oliver.     Bishop  Warburton  says  that  one  may 


20  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

judge  of  the  spirit  in  which  his  "  Memoirs  "  were 
written  by  his  character,  which  was  that  of  "  a 
furious,  mad,  but  apparently  honest  Republican 
and  Independent."  He  was  an  Oxford  graduate, 
a  Temple  Bar  man,  an  army  officer,  one  of  the 
six  men  who  arranged  Pride's  Purge,  which  was 
as  much  a  political  crime  as  the  disruption  of 
the  "  Rump,"  one  of  the  king's  judges  and  a 
signer  of  his  death  warrant.  He  was  an  ambi- 
tious  and  an  able  man. 

Cromwell  had  proved  himself  the  abler  soldier 
and  the  more  successful  politician.  Ludlow  be- 
came his  enemy  and  made  no  secret  of  his 
position.  He  went  to  Whitehall  soon  after 
Oliver  was  made  Protector,  had  an  interview, 
avowed  his  opposition  to  the  government,  but 
promised  to  be  peaceable  so  long  as  he  saw  no 
chance  of  overthrowing  it.  He  asked  to  be  per- 
mitted to  retire  to  his  home  in  Essex,  and  the 
request  was  granted.  At  Essex,  Cromwell  kept 
his  eye  upon  him,  and.  even  on  his  death-bed, 
on  August  30,  1658,  hearing  that  Ludlow  was 
on  his  way  to  London,  the  Protector  sent  Fleet- 
wood to  ask  what  his  purpose  was  in  leaving 
Essex.  Ludlow  replied  that  he  was  going  to 
see  his  siek   mot her-in-law.       A  tempest  that  day 

was  raging  over   England  ;  it  stopped  Ludlow's 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  21 

coach  at  Epping ;  it  was  typical  of  a  worse  storm 
soon  to  come. 

The  state  of  mind  in  which  the  famous  "  Mem- 
oirs" were  written  can  be  inferred  from  these 
facts. 

Ludlow  thought  he  discovered  the  ambition  of 
Oliver  for  a  crown  as  far  back  as  the  battle 
of  Worcester,  when  the  general,  in  his  letter  to 
Parliament,  spoke  of  the  success  as  a  "  crowning 
mercy."  Oliver  was  not  in  the  habit  of  punning, 
and  had  he  been,  he  would  have  had  sense  enough 
to  know  that  a  play  on  words  sent  in  an  official 
letter  to  the  Parliament,  would  not  conduce  to 
his  elevation  to  the  throne. 

A  momentary  imbecility  combined  with  jeal- 
ousy can  only  account  for  Ludlow's  imputation. 

And  when  the  time  arrives  to  save  the  nation 
from  anarchy,  "  the  perfidious  Cromwell,"  says 
the  embittered,  malignant  author,  "  forgetting  his 
solemn  promises,  takes  off  his  mask,  resolves  to 
sacrifice  all  victories  to  his  pride  and  ambition, 
under  the  color  of  taking  upon  him  the  office,  as 
it  were,  of  a  high  Constable  in  order  to  keep  the 
peace  of  the  nation,  and  to  restrain  men  from 
cutting  each  other's  throats."  No  words  could 
better  indicate  Oliver's  position  than  those  with 
which  this  sentence  ends.      Oliver's    letters,  his 


22  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

speeches  and  his  actions,  Milton's,  Maidstone's 
and  others'  testimony,  will  throw  light  on  this 
"  perfidious  "  Protector  before  our  book  is  done. 

Who  would  not  be  kind  to  Ludlow's  memory, 
and  remember  what  he  endured  when  England 
no  longer  had  a  Constable  ?  Thirty-three  years 
of  banishment !  That  was  the  penalty  which 
he  paid  for  his  work  in  saving  his  country  from 
Stuart  tyranny.  The  present  writer  little  thought, 
when  standing,  twenty  years  and  more  ago,  at 
the  exile's  grave  in  Vevay,  that  the  duty  would 
ever  fall  to  him,  in  vindication  of  Cromwell,  to 
write  a  line  adverse  to  Edmund  Ludlow,  the 
great  Republican,  who  failed  to  see  that  in  his 
time  in  England  one  man  "alone  remained  to 
conduct  the  government  and  to  save  the  country." 

Passing  down  half  a  century  we  come  to 
Hume.  Touching  Oliver,  Hume  was  a  scavenger. 
He  worked  in  royalist  sewers,  dragged  out  the 
Protector  uncleaned,  put  him  in  a  historical 
picture-gallery  between  the  Stuarts,  and  there  he 
has  been  for  ;i  century  and  a  half  :  the  sight  of 
him  a  delight  to  royalists,  but  an  offense  to  Pur- 
itan England  and  to  not  a  few  Americans.  Let 
us  look  at  Hume's  statements,  and  remember  that 
for  live  or  six  generations  he  was  pre-eminent 
for  defaming  Cromwell. 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  23 

Hume  tells  his  readers  that  Oliver  was  "  an  art- 
ful politician,"  "  an  atrocious  conspirator,"  "  a 
fanatical  hypocrite,"  "  a  barbarian,"  and  "  a  crim- 
inal, whose  atrocious  violation  of  sacred  duty 
had,  from  every  tribunal,  human  and  divine, 
merited  the  severest  vengeance." 

These  amenities  will  recall  to  the  reader  two 
sewers,  Clarendon  and  Cleaveland  ;  and,  doubt- 
less, "  Carrion  Heath,"  from  his  "  Flagellum," 
furnished  the  historian  with  nouns  and  adjectives  ; 
as  to  substantiated  facts,  adverse  to  Oliver,  there 
are  none  in  these  old  books,  nor  in  any  books 
published  before  or  since  the  year  of  "  unspeak- 
able mercies,"  1GG0. 

There  is  but  little  in  the  speeches  of  Cromwell 
that  is  obscure  or  difficult  for  a  modern  reader  ; 
and  it  is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  the  men 
of  Cromwell's  Parliament,  many  of  whom  had 
listened  to  Eliot  and  Pym  and  Wentworth,  should 
listen  patiently  for  two  and  even  three  consecutive 
hours  to  a  man  who  spoke  without  "  one  glimmer 
of  common  sense ; "  it  is  incredible  that  they 
should  propose  to  make  such  a  man  their  king. 
But  Hume  tells  us  that  Cromwell  did  speak  to 
his  Parliaments  "  without  one  glimmer  of  com- 
mon sense."  He  tells  us  that  Cromwell's  elocu- 
tion was  "  always  confused,  embarrassed,  unin- 


24  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

telligible."  He  tells  us  that  he  "spoke  in  a 
manner  which  a  peasant  of  the  most  ordinary 
capacity  would  be  ashamed  of."  Such  is  Hume's 
estimate  of  speeches  which  are  now  read  by  some 
readers  with  more  intense  interest  than  any  other 
speeches  printed  in  our  language,  and  which 
have  been  ranked  by  Canon  Farrar  with  the 
speeches  of  Chatham,  Pitt,  Fox  and  Burke. 

Hume  further  says,  that  "  a  collection  of 
Oliver's  speeches,  sermons  and  letters,  with  a 
few  exceptions,  might  pass  for  a  great  curiosity, 
and  one  of  the  most  nonsensical  books  in  the 
world."  The  collection  of  speeches  and  letters 
made  by  Carlyle  is,  indeed,  a  curiosity.  Hume 
himself,  whom  historians  now  unite  in  calling 
untrustworthy :  who  painted  the  Stuarts  black- 
on  one  page,  while  he  wrote  on  another  that  they 
were  white ;  whose  works  innumerable  readers 
have  devoured,  age  after  age,  with  the  certainty 
of  becoming  accurately  informed  about  the  past ; 
whose  history  lias  passed  through  more  editions 
than  the  writings  of  any  other  English  historian. 
perhaps,  excepting  Gibbon,  is  now  the  curiosity, 
while  Oliver's  "  Letters  and  Speeches  "  are  re- 
garded as  permanent  additions  to  history,  unsur- 
passed in  value  by  no  writings  of  pasl  centuries. 

Mel    ,il    lirsi    l>\   a  sale    of    his    history  in    Eng- 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  25 

land  of  only  forty-five  volumes  within  a  year, 
and  by  cries  of  reproach  and  detestation,  in 
which  royalists,  just  recovering  from  the  fear  of 
the  return  of  the  Stuarts,  largely  shared,  he  be- 
comes, when  all  danger  of  a  second  battle  of 
Cnlloden  is  over,  the  most  popular  historian  of 
England  ;  he  revives  the  old  and  almost  extinct 
enthusiasm  for  the  banished  royal  house.  Scores 
of  new  editions  are  called  for  before  the  century 
has  closed ;  millions  of  people  in  peaceful  homes, 
which  they  owed  to  the  Long  Parliament  and  to 
Cromwell,  read  and  re-read  his  pages  with  de- 
light, and  outside  of  England  no  history,  except- 
ing that  in  the  Bible,  secured  so  many  readers  ; 
but  Hume's  day  as  a  historian,  let  us  hope,  is 
nearly  gone  ;  he  will  be  read,  at  no  distant  time, 
only  for  his  eloquence. 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  within  the  compass  of 
this  book,  even  to  name  the  English  authors  who, 
in  describing  Oliver's  character,  have  followed  in 
the  track  of  this  false  historian.  A  mere  cata- 
logue of  the  names  of  those  who,  after  Hume, 
wrote  adversely  up  to  the  year  1849,  when  War- 
burton  published  his  "  Prince  Rupert  and  the 
Cavaliers,"  defaming  Cromwell  in  it,  would  re- 
quire many  pages.  But  there  is  one  French 
writer  who  calls  for  a  brief  criticism. 


26  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

Guizot  lias  remarked  that  Cromwell's  "  relig- 
ious faith  had  exercised  but  little  influence  over 
his  conduct ;  "  that  "  determined  to  become  great, 
with  cynical  recklessness  he  had  yielded  to  the 
passions  of  this  world."'  A  more  unjust  state- 
ment, based  necessarily  on  information  derived 
from  royalist  writers,  and  from  Ludlow  and  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  does  not  stain  the  page  of  history. 
Guizot  knew  almost  nothing  of  Cromwell ;  had 
never  read  his  speeches  or  his  letters  ;  was  igno- 
rant of  his  life,  except  as  it  had  been  depicted 
by  enemies,  and  besides,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  this  statesman  held  opinions  about  govern- 
ment which  unfitted  him  to  form  a  correct  esti- 
mate of  a  man  like  Cromwell.  He  failed  to  see 
what  France  needed  in  the  time  of  Louis 
Philippe,  or,  if  he  saw.  failed  to  use  his  knowl- 
edge ;  and  it  was  not  his  place  to  instruct  English- 
men about  the  civil  wars  of  the  Stuarts,  or  to 
tell  them  that  Cromwell  aspired  to  leave  his  name 
ami  race  in  possession  of  a  throne,  but  that  "  his 
crimes  raised  up  obstacles  against  him  which  he 
could  not  surmount." 

Tlie  reader  must  judge  for  himself,  when  he 
comes  to  the  narrative  of  Oliver's  life,  about 
the  truth  of  these  aspersions;  bu1  the  presenl 
writer  cannot  refrain  from  commenting  <»n  them. 


DEFAMATORY   WRITERS.  27 

Religious  faith  had  but  little  influence  on  his  con- 
duct !  It  was  the  guiding  star  of  his  entire  life 
after  he  reached  manhood.  The  proof !  His 
private  letters,  his  deeds  of  charity  and  mercy, 
the  testimony  of  men  contemporary  with  him, 
whose  characters  have  never  been  impeached  — 
.Maidstone  and  others.  Yielded  to  the  passions 
of  the  world  with  cynical  recklessness,  in  order 
to  become  great !  Oliver's  only  recklessness  was 
shown  in  meeting  dangers  in  war,  and  exposing 
himself,  as  Constable,  to  assassins  during  the 
Protectorate  ;  not  a  line  is  to  be  found  in  his 
letters,  nor  a  word  in  his  speeches,  nor  an  act  in 
his  life,  to  indicate  a  desire  for  position  and 
greatness  ;  the  evidence  all  points  in  other  direc- 
tions :  to  the  farm  of  St.  Ives,  and  to  a  private, 
unnoticed  life.  Aspired  to  leave  his  name  and 
race  in  possession  of  a  throne !  If  so,  his  reti- 
cence, his  complete  silence,  his  neglect  to  train  a 
son  to  fill  his  place  when  he  is  gone,  are  unac- 
countable. If  so,  why  did  he  not  name  his  suc- 
cessor ?  It  is  not  proved  that  voluntarily  he 
even  spoke  of  Richard  when  near  his  death  ;  it 
is  probable,  however,  that  one  of  his  Council 
named  the  son,  and  that  he,  having  no  special 
earthward  aspirations  at  the  moment,  with  feeble 
breath    answered    Yes.      His    crimes    raised    up 


28  DEFAMATORY    WRITERS. 

obstacles  against    him   which  he   could   not  sur- 
mount !     This  is  nonsense ;  a  rhetorical  flourish. 
The  only  obstacle  which  Oliver  Cromwell  ever  en- 
countered which  he  did  not  surmount,  was  death. 
In  closing  this  chapter  it  is  impossible  not  to 
recur    to    the    marked    and,    indeed,    wonderful 
change  in  the  tone  of  books  in  regard  to  Crom- 
well since   the    middle   of  the   present    century. 
Guizot,    Southey,    Walter    Scott,   John    Forster, 
Eliot    Warburton,    all    eminent    writers,    wrote 
adversely    about    the  Protector ;    some   of    them 
bitterly,  virulently;  but  since  the  year  1850,  not 
one  eminent  man,  the  present  writer  thinks,  has 
published  a  malignant  or  even  defaming   book. 
In  1837,  according  to  usage  at  the  beginning  of 
a  new  reign,  under  the  order  of  "  J.  Russell,'' 
minister  of  Her  Majest}r,  Victoria,  a  blasphemous 
service,  bearing  hard  on  Oliver,  was  introduced 
into  the  English  Prayer  Book  ;   but  that  service 
has   been    expunged   by  act  of   Parliament.     A 
tory  review,  a  few  years  ago,  announced  that  Oli- 
ver's character  was  a  problem  still  to  be  solved ; 
but  no   Englishman,  inclined  to  Stuart  royalism, 
since   I  he   announcement   was   made,  has,  we   be- 
lieve, undertaken  to  solve  it.     That  problem  was 
forever    solved,    for    the    reading    public,    in    the 
year  1846. 


DEFAMATORY    WRITERS.  29 

The  only  recent  publication  which  we  have 
seen,  which  has  in  it  the  old  royalist  tone,  is 
an  American  school  history  book,  published  in 
New  York  in  1891,  which  teaches  children  that 
Oliver's  "  perverted  ambition  .  .  .  prompted 
him  to  wade  through  slaughter  to  a  throne." 


CHAPTER   II. 


THOMAS    CARLYLE. 


Thomas  Carlyle,  by  collecting  and  publish- 
ing, with  elucidations,  the  letters  and  speeches  of 
Oliver  Cromwell,  brought  into  the  light  a  hero 
who  had  been  regarded  for  almost  two  hundred 
years,  by  nearly  all  readers  of  English  history, 
as  a  great  soldier  pretending  to  piety  of  which 
he  was  destitute  ;  and  who,  simply  to  gratify  his 
personal  ambition,  aimed  to  seat  himself  on  the 
English  throne.  Even  at  the  present  time  marly 
fifty  years  after  the  publication  of  Carlyle's  book, 
both  in  England  and  in  the  United  Slates,  the 
great  majority  of  people  who  have  any  impression 
about  the  Protector,  believe  him  to  have  been  a 
hypocrite,  and  a  seltish  unprincipled  usurper. 

It  is  seldom  that  a  person  can  be  found  here 
in    New    England   who  does  not  hold  the   views 


THOMAS    CARLYLE.  31 

about  Cromwell  to  which  Hume,  and  writers  who 
have  copied  Hume,  have  given  currency.  There- 
are  but  few,  even  among-  our  learned  men,  who 
have  read  Cromwell's  letters  and  speeches.  There 
are  many  who  hate  the  name  of  Cromwell.  There 
are  some,  advanced  in  age,  who  do  not  wish  to 
abandon  their  life-long  prejudices,  and  who  will 
not  seek  light  on  this  supreme  historical  person- 
age. There  are  others  who  have  tried  to  read 
Carlyle's  famous  book,  but  have  been  repelled 
by  the  "  dry  as  dust  "  and  "  anti  dry  as  dust " 
contents  of  the  first  chapter,  and  the  preliminary 
work  of  the  second  and  third  chapters.  We  ad- 
vise readers  to  begin  at  chapter  four. 

Carlyle's  work  was  not  whitewashing,  it  was 
simply  cleaning  ;  the  kind  of  work  done  by  re- 
storers of  old  pictures,  or  of  old  walls,  on  which, 
beneath  the  filth  of  centuries,  are  fine  frescoes. 
Mr.  John  Fiske  has  written :  "  We  have  lono- 
had  before  our  minds  the  colossal  figure  of  Roman 
Julius  as  the  foremost  man  of  all  this  world  ; 
but  as  the  seventeenth  century  recedes  into  the 
past,  the  figure  of  English  Oliver  begins  to  loom 
up  as  even,  perhaps,  the  more  colossal."  True. 
and  why  does  that  figure  begin  to  loom  up  now  ? 
Simply  because  a  few  scholars  like  Mr.  Fiske 
have  read  Carlyle's  "  Cromwell,"  and  are  able  to 


32  THOMAS    CARLYLE. 

see  the  man  whom  no  historical  scholar  saw,  or 
could  see,  fifty  years  ago. 

The  calm,  cool,  judicious  Hallam,  for  instance, 
who  was  no  advocate  for  political  theories,  but  a 
judge,  and  the  fittest  man  of  his  day  to  write  the 
"  Constitutional  History  of  England,"  had  not  a 
true  conception  of  Oliver,  and  he  does  our  hero 
some  injustice.  This  historian,  like  his  distin- 
guished contemporaries  referred  to  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter,  lived  before  the  "  full  recovery  of  a 
true  human  figure  of  immense  historical  impor- 
tance from  below  two  centuries  of  accumulated 
slander  and  misconception."  The  quotation  is 
from  Froude. 

Carlyle  recognized  the  gradual  change  in  opin- 
ion which  was  going  on,  and  he  remarks  :  "  In 
spite  of  the  stupor  of  histories,  it  is  beautiful 
once  more  to  see  how  the  memory  of  Cromwell, 
in  its  huge,  inarticulate  significance,  not  able  to 
speak  a  wise  word  for  itself  to  any  one,  has, 
nevertheless,  been  steadily  growing  clearer  and 
clearer  in  the  popular  English  mind  ;  how  from 
tlir  day  when  high  dignitaries,  and  pamphleteers 
of  the  carrion  species  did  their  ever  memorable 
Eeat  at  Tyburn,  onward  to  this  day.  the  progress 
docs  not  st(i|)."'  But,  while  this  is  true,  it  is  em- 
phatically true  1 1  nit  the  "  Letters   and   Speeches" 


THOMAS   CARLYLE.  33 

with  the  "  Elucidations,"  have   revealed  to  the 
world  its  greatest  and  its  noblest  ruler. 

Maeanlay,  as  already  intimated,  saw  more 
clearly  than  any  writer  of  his  time  what  sort  of  a 
man  Oliver  was ;  but  Maeaulay  had  not  the  mate- 
rial to  work  on  which  Carlyle,  by  his  patience 
and  industry,  secured.  Could  Maeaulay  have 
possessed  himself  of  the  letters  and  speeches,  and 
then  put  into  his  plain  and  glowing  language  the 
thoughts  which  these  letters  and  speeches  suggest, 
the  reading  public  would  long  ago  have  worshiped 
Cromwell's  memory.  It  is  harder  work  to  read 
Carlyle  than  it  is  to  read  Maeaulay 's  smooth  sen- 
tences ;  but  once  having  read  him  intelligently,  one 
clings  to  him,  and  reads  him  over  and  over  again. 

The  debt,  then,  which  we  owe  to  Thomas  Carlyle 
is  a  large  one.  VWith  the  letters,  speeches  and 
the  elucidations  he  has  made  a  picture  of  Oliver 
which  no  Stuart  loyalist  can  ever  mar  or  changeT"\ 
The  order  said  to  have  been  given  to  Lely, 
"Paint  me  as  I  am,"  has  been  faithfully,  accu- 
rately executed;  and  unless  other  letters  and 
other  speeches  of  a  character  wholly  different 
from  those  now  published,  shall  hereafter  appear, 
the  portraiture  which  he  has  drawn  will  stand, 
with  not  a  blemish,  amid  the  most  notable  his- 
toric portraits  of  modern  times. 
3 


34  THOMAS    CARLYLE. 

Before  deciding  on  Cromwell  for  a  subject, 
Carlyle  worked  on  the  Common  wealth,  and  "  lost 
four  years  of  good  labor  in  the  business  " — "  four 
years  of  abstruse  toil,  obscure  speculations,  futile 
wrestling1  and  misery."  He  then  burnt  a  part  of 
his  materials,  " locked  away"  the  rest,  and  de- 
cided to  make  "  Oliver  the  center  of  his  composi- 
tion." He  seems  to  have  come  slowly  to  the 
opinion  that  the  Protector  was  the  great  and 
good  man  whom  he  represents  him  to  have  been. 
Indeed,  from  one  of  the  Craigen-puttock  papers, 
it  may  be  inferred  that  he  shared  in  early  life 
the  prevailing  opinions  on  the  subject.  He  says 
himself  that  he  began  "  not  knowing  what  he 
would  make  of  it."  He  was  in  "  a  hideous,  enor- 
mous bog."  His  "  progress  is  frightful,  but  his 
conscience  drives  him  011.*"  After  a  time  he 
thinks  he  shall  "  make  something  of  it  in  the 
end,"  little  dreaming  that  he  would  produce  the 
most  valuable  historical  book  of  his  century. 
When  he  sees  "some  fruit"  of  his  "unspeakable 
puddlings  and  welterings,"  and  possesses  himself 
of  the  "  authentic  utterances  of  the  man  Oliver, 
fished  11])  from  the  foul  Lethean  quagmires,  where 
they  lay  buried,"  he  hopes  that  he  shall  "gel 
the  poor  hook  done,  and  that  it  will  turn  out  to 
have  been  worth  doing."*      tk  If  I  can  show  Oliver 


THOMAS    CARLYLE.  35 

as  he  is,  I  shall  do  a  good  turn."  Such  were  the 
records  of  Carlyle  in  his  diary,  at  about  forty- 
five  years  of  age,  when  editors  of  reviews  and 
booksellers  in  England  were  still  looking  askant 
at  him  ;  fearing  to  lose  subscribers  if  they  pub- 
lished his  review  articles,  or  fearing  to  lose 
money  if  they  published  his  books. 

It  is  to  the  honor  of  New  England  that  Emer- 
son discovered  what  was  in  Carlyle  at  a  time 
when  the  man  "  expected  nothing  from  the  world 
but  continued  indifference  ;  "  and  sent  him,  when 
almost  in  the  dregs  of  poverty,  three  drafts  for 
the  "French  Revolution,"  from  a  Boston  publish- 
ing house,  before  he  had  received  one  pound  from 
London  booksellers,  for  the  same. 

As  to  his  Cromwell,  Fronde  says,  "  No  shadow 
of  a  doubt  about  the  genuineness  of  the  portrait 
can  be  entertained  ;  "  and  he  adds,  "  it  is  Carlyle's 
supreme  merit  that  he  first  understood  the  speeches 
made  by  Cromwell  in  Parliament,  and  enabled 
us  to  understand  them.  Printed  as  they  had 
hitherto  been,  they  could  only  confirm  the  im- 
pression, either  that  the  Protector's  mind  was 
hopelessly  confused,  or  that  he  purposely  con- 
cealed what  was  in  it.  Carlyle  has  shown  that 
they  are  perfectly  genuine  speeches,  not  eloquent, 
as  modern  parliamentary  speeches  are,  or  aspire 


3G  THOMAS    CARLYLE. 

to  be  thought,  but  the  faithful  expressions  of  the 
most  real  and  determined  meaning-,  about  which 
those  who  listened  to  him  could  have  been  left  in 
no  doubt  at  all." 

The  greatest  man.  and  the  best  ruler  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  at  last  is  rescued  from  the 
slums  of  history  by  the  greatest  Englishman  of 
the  nineteenth  century ;  or  to  use  the  words  of 
Chambers's  Encyclopaedia :  "  To  Carlyle  has  fallen 
the  unspeakable  honor  of  replacing  in  the  Pan- 
theon of  English  History  the  statue  of  Eng- 
land's greatest  ruler."  Cowper's  line,  "Build 
him  a  pedestal,  and  say,  '  Stand  there,'  "  would  be 
no  unfit  motto  for  the  work  which  Carlyle  has 
done  for  the  memory  of  Cromwell.  "  Let  the 
reader,"  says  H.  A.  Taine,  member  of  the  French 
Academy,  "  consider  Carlyle's  Cromwell,  and  he 
will  see  with  what  justice,  exactness,  depth  of 
insight  one  may  discover  a  soul  beneath  its  actions 
and  works ;  how,  behind  the  old  general,  in  place 
of  a  vulgar,  hypocritical  schemer,  we  recover  a 
man."  "One  may  follow  him  from  his  farm 
and  team  to  the  general's  tent,  and  to  the  Pro- 
tector's throne;  in  his  transmutations  and  de- 
velopment, in  his  pricks  of  conscience  and  his 
political   conclusions,  until    the    machinery  of   his 

mind  and  actions  becomes  visible ;  and  the  tragedy, 


THOMAS    CAELYLE.  37 

ever  changing  and  renewed,  which  exercised  this 
great,  darkling  soul,  passes,  like  one  of  Shake- 
speare's, through  the  soul  of  the  looker-on." 

Again,  says  Taiue  :  "  We  must  read  this  his- 
tory of  Carlyle  to  understand  how  far  this  senti- 
ment of  actuality  penetrates  him ;  with  what 
knowledge  it  endows  him ;  how  he  rectifies  dates 
and  texts  ;  how  he  verifies  traditions  and  genealo- 
gies ;  how  he  visits  places,  examines  the  trees, 
looks  at  the  brooks,  knows  the  agriculture,  prices 
the  whole  domestic  and  rural  economy,  all  the 
political  and  literary  circumstances  ;  with  what 
minuteness,  precision  and  vehemence  he  recon- 
structs before  his  eyes,  and  before  our  own,  the 
external  picture  of  objects  and  affairs,  the  inter- 
nal picture  of  ideas  and  emotions  ;  and  it  is  not 
simply  on  his  part  conscience,  habit,  or  prudence, 
but  need  and  passion." 

Again  we  quote  from  Taine :  "  Grave  consti- 
tutional histories  hang  heavy  after  this  compila- 
tion. The  author  wished  to  make  us  comprehend 
a  soul,  the  soul  of  Cromwell,  the  gTeatest  of  the 
Puritans,  their  chief,  their  abstract,  their  hero 
and  their  model.  His  narrative  resembles  that 
of  an  eye  witness."  .  .  .  "At  last  we  are 
face  to  face  with  Cromwell.  We  have  his  words. 
We  can  hear  his  tone  of  voice  ;  we   see  him  in 


38  THOMAS   CARLYLE. 

his  tent,  in  council,  .  .  .  with  his  face  and 
costume ;  every  detail,  the  most  minute,  is  here. 
Would  that  all  history  were  like  this  ;  a  selection 
of  texts  provided  with  a  commentary.  Crom- 
well comes  forth,  reformed  and  renewed.  We 
divined  pretty  well  already  that  he  was  not  a 
mere  man  of  ambition,  a  hypocrite ;  but  we  took 
him  for  a  fanatic  and  hateful  wrangler.  We 
considered  these  Puritans  as  gloomy  madmen, 
shallow  brains  and  full  of  scruples.  Let  us  quit 
our  French  and  modern  ideas  and  enter  into  these 
souls ;  we  shall  find  in  them  something  else 
than  hypochondria,  namely,  a  grand  sentiment. 
Am  I  a  just  man  ?  and  if  God  who  is  perfect 
justice  were  to  judge  me  at  this  moment  what 
sentence  would  he  pass  upon  me?  Such  is  the 
original  idea  of  the  Puritans,  and  through  them 
came  the  revolution  in  En  "land.  We  Laugh  at 
a  revolution  about  surplices  and  ehasubles  ;  there 
was  a  sentiment  of  the  divine  underneath  all 
these  disputes  of  vestments.  Those  poor  folk, 
shop-keepers  and  farmers,  believed  witli  all  their 
hearts  in  a  sublime  and  terrible  God,  and  the 
manner  how  to  worship  him  was  not  a  trifling 
tiling  for  them.  This  has  caused  the  revolution, 
and  not  the  Writ  of  Ship-money,  or  any  other 
political  vexation. 


?j 


OLIVER   CROMWELL. 

(Picture  lii/  WalLir,  at  llinchinbrooke.) 


THOMAS    CARLYLE.  39 

In  history,  in  novels,  and  in  poetry  the  Puri- 
tan of  the  seventeenth  century  has  often  been 
depicted  ;  his  picture,  that  of  the  sinister  hypo- 
crite, is  distinctly  impressed  on  us  ;  but  of  the 
royalist  churchman  of  the  Charles  II.  type,  we 
have  no  accurate  portrait.  The  extreme  Puritan 
we  know ;  but  of  the  extreme  political  defenders 
of  the  church  who  cared  nothing-  for  religion, 
who  were  compelled  to  swear  belief  to  the  doc- 
trines of  the  church  before  securing  a  seat  in 
Parliament,  or  admission  to  the  court,  royalist 
writers  have  given  us  only  imperfect  pictures. 
It  was  the  church  establishment,  and  not  Chris- 
tianity, for  which  these  conformists  cared. 

Perhaps  Mr.  Rees,  who  was  one  of  a  com- 
mittee who  waited  on  Lord  Thurlow,  minister  of 
George  III.,  to  ask  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corpora- 
tion and  Test  Act  may  give  us  a  correct  idea  of 
them :  "  Gentlemen,"  said  Lord  Thurlow,  "  I  am 
against  you,  by  God.  I  am  for  the  established 
church,  d — n  me.  Not  that  I  have  any  more  re- 
gard for  the  established  church  than  for  any 
other  church,  but  because  it  is  established.  And 
if  you  could  get  your  d — d  religion  established, 
I'll  be  for  that  too." 

In  the  time  of  Charles  II.,  when  a  man  could 
not  be  a  custom-house   officer    unless   he   was  a 


40  THOMAS    CARLYLE. 

churchman,  there  must  have  been  Thurlows ;  but 
they  have  not  been  described,  like  the  Puritans, 
as  unworthy  members  of  society.  It  is  unfair 
to  keep  Praise  God  Barebones  in  sight,  and  hide 
the  Thurlows  who  were  conformists.  Outside 
the  court,  in  the  country  towns  and  villages, 
during  the  seventeenth  century,  true  piety  was 
about  equally  shared  by  the  Puritans  and  church- 
men. The  homes  of  John  Howe  and  George 
Herbert  were  not  unlike. 


CHAPTER   III. 


EARLY    LIFE. 


It  has  been  said  that  for  Oliver's  boyhood  there 
is  "  nothing  but  unlimited  conjecture  and  most 
dubious  legend  ;  "  and  Carlyle  tells  us  that  the 
boy  "  went  through  the  universal  destinies  which 
conduct  all  men  from  childhood  to  youth,  in  a 
way  not  particularized  by  an  authentic  record. " 
But  there  is  one  authentic  record  which  even 
Carlyle's  careful  search  did  not  secure.  In  the 
parish  book  which  records  the  baptism  of  Oliver 
is  also  a  notice  of  his  having  been  subjected  to 
some  sort  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  at  the  age  of 
seventeen,  for  an  offense  which  he  had  committed. 
What  the  offense  was  is  not  indicated,  but  it 
probably  was  connected  in  some  way  with  the 
church  or  its  services.  The  date  of  the  record  is 
a  little  —  perhaps  a  year  —  before  the  time  when 


42  EARLY    LIFE. 

Laud  was  made  Archdeacon  of  Huntingdon,  his 
first  promotion  ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely,  trained 
as  Oliver  had  been  by  his  parents  and  by  his 
schoolmaster,  Dr.  Beard,  a  Low  Churchman, 
that  he  manifested  some  dislike  of  changes  which 
he  noticed  in  the  manner  of  conducting  the  ser- 
vices, or  in  the  chancel  arrangements  of  the 
church. 

Perhaps  Oliver  had  not  an  appreciating  eye 
for  the  new  ecclesiastical  garments  which  were 
then  coming  into  fashion,  or  perhaps  he  did  not 
like  to  see  the  communion  table  to  which  his 
mother  had  become  accustomed  changed  and 
made  into  an  altar  ;  and,  boy-like,  was  a  little 
imprudent  in  speech  or  actions.  We  do  not 
know,  and  we  never  shall  know,  what  the  trouble 
was,  or  what  the  punishment  was  ;  but  the  record 
stands,  and  has  stood  for  nearly  three  hundred 
years,  on  the  parish  book,  telling  that  Oliver  had 
done  something  wrong;  and  as  this  is  the  only 
indication  of  the  kind  connected  with  his  life, 
the  only  proof  adverse  to  his  good  character,  it 
can  do  his  memory  no  special  harm  to  mention 
it  here. 

Oliver  was  born  in  Huntingdon,  a  small  ham- 
Lei  about  fifteen  miles  from  Cambridge,  on  (he 
twenty-fifth  of  April,  1599.     The  house  in  which 


EARLY    LIFE.  43 

he  spent  his  early  clays  is  still  standing,  but  it 
has  been  much  changed.  His  family,  at  the  time 
of  his  birth,  was  not  an  obscure  one.  His  father 
and  three  of  his  uncles  had  sat  in  the  Parliaments 
of  Queen  Elizabeth.  A  royalist  uncle,  Oliver's 
godfather,  who  lived  in  the  great,  and  even  then, 
historical  house,  called  Hinchinbrook,  only  half 
a  mile  from  Oliver's  home,  was  so  prominent  a 
man  that  King  James  nearly  ruined  him,  finan- 
cially, by  his  visits.  The  Hinchinbrook  mansion 
still  remains,  and  its  external  appearance  is  now 
much  as  it  was  three  hundred  years  ago. 

Besides  the  uncle,  Sir  Oliver,  the  boy  had 
many  relatives  who  were  prominent  in  English 
society.  One  of  his  aunts  was  Mrs.  Hampden, 
the  mother  of  John  Hampden,  who  was  a  great 
man,  and  at  one  period  of  his  life  the  most  talked 
of,  and  the  most  revered,  of  all  the  men  in  Eng- 
land. The  social  position,  then,  of  Oliver's  family 
was  that  of  the  English  gentry,  between  the 
nobility  and  the  yeomamy ;  his  relations  were 
people  of  property,  education  and  good  breeding. 
But  "better  than  all  social  rank,"  Oliver's  father 
"  is  understood  to  have  been  a  wise,  devout,  stead- 
fast and  worthy  man  ;  and  to  have  lived  a  modest 
and  manful  life."  Even  in  "  Cromwelliana,"  we 
read  that  Mr.  Robert  Cromwell  was  "  a  gentleman 


44  EARLY    LIFE. 

who  went  no  less  in  esteem  and  reputation  than 
any  of  his  ancestors  for  his  personal  worth,  until 
his  unfortunate  production  of  his  son  and  heir ;  " 
and  of  Oliver's  mother  it  is  only  necessary  here 
to  say  that  she  imparted  to  her  son  some  of  her 
own  good  qualities,  that  she  deeply  loved  her  son, 
and  that  Oliver  tenderly  watched  over  her  from 
the  time  when  she  became  a  widow  in  1617,  till, 
in  1G54,  she  died  in  Whitehall  Palace  at  the 
age  of  ninety-four. 

His  parents  were  religious  after  the  Puritan 
type,  and  from  them  he  doubtless  first  learned 
that  Bible  language  which  clung  to  him  through 
life,  and  which  in  his  use  of  it  was  not  cant,  but 
the  simplest  and  most  natural  form  of  speech. 
Oliver  received  his  home-training  at  a  time  when 
a  Puritan  was  what  the  name  indicates;  when 
the  name  was  one  of  reproach  :  when  it  suggested 
persecution,  and  when  there  was  no  advantage  to 
be  gained  in  being  a  hypocrite  under  it.  There 
were  but  few,if  any, hypocritical  Puritans  before 
the  time  of  the  Long  Parliament,  forty-one  years 
after  lie  was  born  :  there  were  many  of  them  when 
Puritanism  became  a  power  in  the  government, 
and  a  title  to  favor  and  rewards. 

Oliver,  too,  in  that  Huntingdon  home,  in  ad- 
dition   to    his    religious   training,    was    securing   a 


JOHN    HAMPDEN. 

{Portrait  in  the  collection  of  tin-  Earl  of  St.  Germans,  at  Port  Eliot.) 


EARLY    LIFE.  45 

political  education  (for  religion  and  politics  were 
identical  in  those  days)  from  the  time  that  he 
began  to  think  at  all  seriously  on  any  subject. 
The  talks  at  the  fireside  were  of  the  atrocities 
of  Elizabeth's  reign  ;  of  the  emigrants,  sixty  to 
seventy  thousand  of  them  who,  driven  by  the 
persecutions  of  Philip  II.  and  of  Alva,  had  settled 
within  fifty  years  in  the  eastern  counties  of  Eng- 
land ;  of  that  ecclesiastical  farce,  the  Hampton 
Court  Conference,  which  gave  King  James  so 
much  sport,  and  which  gave  the  Puritans  so 
much  disappointment  and  distress  ;  of  the  Span- 
ish fleet,  the  Armada,  which,  a  few  years  before 
his  birth,  had  been  sent  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
quering the  country  and  forcing  it  to  become 
Koman  Catholic ;  of  the  attempt  to  blow  up  the 
Parliament  House  and  all  the  Protestants  in  it ; 
of  the  stabbing  by  Jesuits,  in  Paris,  of  Henry, 
one  of  the  Protestant  champions  of  the  day;  of 
King  James's  claim  to  "  absolute  sovereignty," 
his  claim  to  "  freedom  from  all  control  by  law," 
his  claim  to  passive  obedience  as  a  religious  obli- 
gation, binding  on  all  his  subjects,  his  claim  to 
"  the  power  to  alter  the  religion "  of  men  and 
women,  as  the  representative  of  the  Almighty, 
and  to  do  this  sacred  Work  with  shears  and 
branding  irons,  where  sermons  failed ;  to  do  this 


46  EARLY    LIFE. 

in  behalf  of  the  court  of  Heaven,  when  the  orgies 
of  the  court  at  Whitehall  were  the  scorn  and 
derision  of  all  Puritans. 

Talks  about  these  matters  Oliver  often  listened 
to  in  the  Huntingdon  home  before  he  reached  the 
age  of  twenty.  These  talks,  and  the  abundant 
pamphlets  of  the  time,  gave  him  his  early  politi- 
cal training ;  and  two  years  after  he  was  twenty, 
when  a  farmer,  he  was  looking  after  his  cows 
and  sheep,  leading  a  quiet  peaceful  life,  his  politi- 
cal education  was  supplemented  by  learning  that 
the  patriots  of  the  Parliament  of  1621,  all  of 
whom  were  loyal  to  the  government,  had  failed 
in  their  object  to  control  taxation,  and  to  secure 
the  "  privilege  of  free  discussion  ; "  that  the  king 
had  been  to  the  Parliament  House,  and  with  his 
own  hand  had  torn  from  the  Journal  the  rec- 
ord of  their  votes,  and  had  sent  a  message  to 
the  members  forbidding  them  to  inquire  into  the 
mysteries  of  State.  It  is  conceivable  that  Oliver's 
thoughts,  when  news  of  these  things  reached  him, 
were  not  limited  to  his  cattle  ;  it  is  probable  that 
his  mind  expanded  not  a  little  politically  when 
he  heard  of  the  royal  doings  in  the  Parliament 
of  1621. 

The  reader  must  not  for  a  moment  suppose 
that  we  have  been  drawing  a  fancy  picture.     It  is, 


EARLY    LIFE.  47 

and  must  be,  a  true  picture  even  in  its  minutest 
details.  Dr.  Beard,  Oliver's  teacher  when  a 
boy,  as  well  as  his  adviser  in  youth,  besides  be- 
ing a  reader  of  books,  and  a  publisher  of  books, 
was  a  sharp-sighted  man,  ready  for  political  or 
any  other  useful  talk.  He  had  his  eyes  wide 
open.  He  knew  what  was  going  on.  Seven 
years  after  the  time  of  which  we  have  been 
speaking,  when  Oliver  went  up  to  London  to 
sit  as  member  in  the  Parliament  of  1G28,  Dr. 
Beard  had  his  eye  on  him,  and  furnished  him 
with  the  subject  of  his  first  parliamentary  speech. 
It  is  impossible  that  the  boy  and  the  young  man 
should  have  escaped  the  education  on  politics 
which  we  have  noted,  with  such  a  man  as  Dr. 
Beard  at  his  side,  shut  up  in  a  little  village  like 
Huntingdon. 

The  home  of  Oliver's  boyhood  was  a  pleasant 
one.  Through  the  grounds  about  it  flowed  a 
brook,  which  is  suggestive  of  sport,  though  we 
are  not  sure  that  it  contained  trout.  The  fens 
abounded  in  game.  There  was  nothing  particu- 
larly interesting  in  the  scenery,  but  the  surround- 
ings of  Hinchinbrook  were  attractive.  The  walk 
to  the  grand  old  house  of  his  uncle  and  godfather 
could  be  taken  within  a  few  minutes.  Oliver's 
father   had   an    income,  it  is  reported,  of  about 


48  EARLY    LIFE. 

five  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  his  mother  had 
about  one  thousand  dollars  a  year,  reckoning 
money  at  its  present  value.  There  was  probably 
no  lack  of  such  comforts  as  were  found  in  the 
houses  of  the  gentry.  He  had  no  brother,  but 
he  had  six  sisters  who  grew  to  womanhood,  two 
of  whom  married  colonels  ;  one  married  a  general, 
and  a  fourth,  after  the  death  of  her  first  husband, 
who  was  a  doctor,  married  another  doctor  who 
became  a  bishop.  These  facts  tell  in  favor  of 
Oliver's  sisters,  and  indicate  that  the  family  was 
not  an  obscure  one.  With  these  sisters  the  boy 
must  have  learned  to  sing,  for  in  later  life  he 
sang  in  the  midst  of  battle  ;  and  in  quiet  hours, 
when  such  came,  he  sang  in  the  palace  of 
Whitehall. 

To  the  stories  of  royalists,  that  when  a  boy  lie 
stole  apples  out  of  orchards  and  that  he  fought 
with  other  boys,  stories  grounded  on  "  human 
stupidity  and  Carrion  Heath,"  Carlyle  gives 
Christian  burial.  The  probability  is,  that,  with 
such  a  mother  as  he  had.  and  with  his  many 
sisters,  he  was  not,  as  represented  in  history,  an 
evil-minded  boy.  The  face  made  from  a  east 
taken  afterdeath,  is  a  noble  one  even  beautiful 
when  long  looked  at  ;  and  though  poets,  in  the 
Stuart   interest,  found  a  subject  for  their  rhyme 


EARLY    LIFE.  49 

in  his  prominent  red  nose,  it  is  pleasant  to 
believe  that  the  face  of  the  youth  was  not  at  all 
ill-looking-. 

One  thing  certainly  can  be  put  to  Oliver's 
credit,  his  intimate  connection,  far  into  man- 
hood, with  the  teacher  of  his  boyhood.  Most 
fortunate  were  his  relations  to  Dr.  Beard.  The 
doctor  grounded  him  in  Latin  and  prepared  him 
for  Cambridge  ;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  he  gave 
him  another  education,  one  that  was  to  leave  its 
effects  on  the  history  of  England.  Oliver  se- 
cured enough  Latin  to  enable  him  to  talk  in  that 
language,  but  it  is  reported  that  he  did  not 
talk  very  well.  It  is  not  improbable  that  Dr. 
Beard  awakened  in  him  a  love  for  books,  and 
that  he  laid  the  foundation  of  his  fine  library 
while  yet  a  farmer  of  Huntingdon  and  St.  Ives. 
It  is  certain  that  long  after  the  school  days  were 
over,  seholar  and  teacher  were  often  together,  and 
they  seem  to  have  acted  in  concert. 

The  doctor  was  a  Puritan,  but  Puritans  in  his 
time,  as  before  stated,  were  what  the  name  implied. 
Sham  Puritanism,  thirty  to  forty  years  later  than 
the  years  of  which  we  are  writing,  was  grim,  sour, 
long-faced,  whining  :  not  so  that  of  Oliver's  child- 
hood.  The  fact  that  Dr.  Beard  was  a  Puritan 
in  Elizabeth's  reign   and  in  the  first  part  of  the 

i 


50  EARLY    LIFE. 

seventeenth  century,  carries  with  it  the  idea  that 
he  was  a  good,  kind  and  truly  Christian  man. 
Since  writing-  this  sentence  my  eye  falls  on  the 
following  one  in  Green's  History  :  "  The  lighter 
and  more  elegant  sides  of  the  Elizabethan  culture 
harmonize  well  enough  with  the  temper  of  the 
Puritan  gentleman." 

The  sports  within  the  reach  of  Oliver  in  his 
boyhood,  apart  from  fowling  and  fishing,  were 
rather  limited  ;  but  it  is  known  that  foot-ball  was 
within  his  compass.  The  game  played  then  in 
Huntingdon  was  not,  indeed,  what  the  game  is 
to-day.  It  was  not  so  scientific.  No  report  of 
scores  was  sent  over  England.  Cambridge  and 
Oxford  professors  did  not  watch  the  results  with 
any  special  interest.  But,  in  spite  of  detrac- 
tions, the  boy  enjoyed  his  foot-ball,  and  it  must 
have  been  a  trial,  after  he  had  learned  the  game, 
to  find  a  competitor  at  Cambridge  who  could 
beat  him. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  says  that  Oliver  was  afraid 
of  her  husband;  but  the  only  authentic  record 
of  Oliver's  ever  having  had  fear  connects  itself, 
not  with  Colonel  Hutchinson,  but  with  foot-ball. 
This  record  may  be  found  in  a  late  publication 
of  "The  Prince  Society,"  Boston,  by  Charles  H. 
Bell.     "  I  remember  the   time,"  said  the  Lord 


EARLY    LIFE.  51 

Protector,  "  when  I  was  more  afraid  of  meeting 
John  Wheelwright  at  foot-hall,  than  I  have  been 
since  of  meeting  an  army  in  the  field,  for  I  was 
infallibly  sure  of  being  tripped  up  by  him." 
Any  gleam  of  light  on  our  hero  is  worth  having, 
but  these  words  are  especially  interesting  in  this 
foot-ball  age.  We  have  but  little  hope  of  awak- 
ening interest  touching  Oliver  among  scholars,  or 
even  of  their  reading  our  little  book  ;  but  per- 
haps foot-ball  men  will  find  interest  in  it  just 
here,  and  by  the  year  1899  will  have  erected  a 
marble  foot-ball  group,  with  Oliver  and  Wheel- 
wright in  the  center,  to  commemorate  two  chain- 
pious  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  great  ruler,  the  Protector  of  New  England, 
may  be  neglected  ;  it  may  be  difficult  to  raise 
money  enough  even  to  buy  a  picture  of  the 
warrior,  the  statesman  and  the  saint ;  but  con- 
nect his  memory  with  foot-ball,  and  the  difficulty 
would  be  overcome.  We  do  not  think  the  sug- 
gested monument  would  be  the  most  desirable 
one  for  the  perpetuation  of  Oliver's  name ;  but 
it  would  be  better  than  nothing,  and  nothing- 
have  we  yet  in  New  England. 

One  o-reat  attraction  for  Oliver,  outside  of  his 
home,  was  the  house  of  his  uncle.  The  sumptu- 
osities  of  that  house,  which,  of  course,  included 


52  EARLY    LIFE. 

a  good  deal  of  eating  and  drinking,  were  such 
that  they  finally  brought  financial  ruin  to  god- 
father Oliver,  and  compelled  him  to  retire  to  a 
smaller  and  less  expensive  establishment  far  off 
in  the  fens.  But  the  expenses  and  the  shows 
were  kept  up  all  through  Oliver's  youth,  and  he 
had  the  full  benefit  of  them. 

Pictures  of  Hinchinbrook  mansion  have  lately 
been  brought  out  in  this  country,  showing  the 
old  Norman  gateway,  and  a  part  of  the  old  nun- 
nery ;  and  the  place  is  described  as  being  now 
one  of  the  loveliest  of  old  English  homes.  Oli- 
ver's grandfather,  Sir  Henry  Cromwell,  "  en- 
larged and  as  £00d  as  built"  Hinchinbrook.  He 
was  called  the  Golden  Knight  because  he  spent 
and  gave  away  so  much  money.  He  died  in 
January,  1G03,  when  Oliver  was  nearly  four 
years  old.  The  little  boy  saw  "  funeralia  and 
crapes,  saw  father  and  uncles  with  grave  faces, 
and  understood  not  well  what  it  meant  ;  under- 
stood only,  or  tried  to  understand,  that  the  good 
old  grandfather  was  gone  away,  and  would  never 
pat  his  head  any  more."' 

Oliver's  uncle  and  godfather  succeeded  Sir 
Henry  at  Hinchinbrook  ;  ami  :i  few  months  after 
establishing  himself,  he  received  a  message  from 
Kine  James  of  Scotland,  that  on  his  journey  to 


EARLY    LIFE.  53 

London  to  take  the  crown,  which  Elizabeth's 
death  had  vacated,  he  would  stop  for  a  visit  at 
the  Hinchinbrook  house.  The  king  arrived  about 
the  last  of  April,  1003,  and  remained  as  a  guest 
for  two  days ;  a  short  visit,  but  a  good  deal  can 
be  done  in  the  matter  of  expense  within  a  brief 
time  when  one  has  a  king  and  his  retinue  to 
entertain.  "  Uncle  Oliver,  besides  the  ruinously 
splendid  entertainments,  gave  James  hounds, 
horses  and  astonishing  gifts  "  .  .  .  "  in  re- 
turn there  were  knights  created,  Sir  Oliver  the 
first  of  the  batch  we  may  suppose."  .  .  . 
l-  King  James  had  decided  that  there  should  be 
no  reflection  for  the  want  of  knights." 

Let  us  take  a  glance  into  the  big  hall  of  the 
fine  old  house,  and  try  to  see  what  is  going  on 
there  on  the  morning  of  April  28,  1603.  Little 
Oliver  is  certain  to  be  an  early  arrival.  Noth- 
ing could  keep  him  at  home  that  morning.  His 
good  mother  probably  found  it  difficult  to  keep 
him  quiet  while  she  was  arranging  his  cuffs  and 
collar.  There  were  no  Barnum  shows  in  that 
day  at  Huntingdon,  and  to  see  the  gorgeous 
king  and  his  Scotch  attendants,  in  their  strange 
dresses  and  feathers,  and  the  tables  spread  with 
all  kinds  of  luxuries  that  could  be  had,  was  a 
chance   for  him   not  to  be  missed.      Knighthood, 


54  EARLY    LIFE. 

in  the  olden  times  of  chivalry,  had  a  significance  ; 
it  meant  something  when  the  receiver  of  it  had 
"  won  his  spurs  ;  "  and  in  late  times,  men  who 
have  become  distinguished  by  doing  something 
worth  doing,  rightly  have  the  honor  conferred  on 
them ;  but  the  chief  use  of  knighthood  in  King 
James's  time,  appears  to  have  been  to  get  money 
to  eke  out  the  royal  revenue. 

Sir  Oliver  had  done  nothing  to  entitle  him  to 
a  garter  or  a  ribbon,  but  the  king  knew  that  he 
was  rich  and  was  disposed  to  make  presents. 
Later  on  the  king  directly  sold  the  title  of  "  Sir ;  " 
but  it  is  not  likely  that  he  began  that  sort  of 
trade  on  the  occasion  of  this  visit,  and  before 
he  was  crowned.  He  secured  his  pay  out  of  Sir 
Oliver  indirectly  —  by  visits  at  Hinchinbrook,  by 
receiving  gifts  —  until  at  last  the  knight  became 
so  reduced  in  income  that  he  was  compelled  to 
sell  Hinchinbrook  to  one  of  the  Montagues  ;  the 
Montagues  still  hold  the  place.  Hume  tells  us, 
and  for  such  a  statement  he  is  credible,  that 
James  brought  with  him  from  Scotland  a  great 
number  of  Scottish  courtiers,  and  that  as  he 
passed  along  all  ranks  of  men  flocked  about 
him  from  every  quarter.  The  nobility,  of  course, 
came  to  Hinchinbrook  with  their  best  clothes  and 
ornaments,  adding  to  the  interest  of  the  spectacle. 


EARLY    LIFE.  55 

Oliver,  when  he  became  a  man,  was  indifferent 
about  dress,  in  fact,  laid  himself  open  to  criti- 
cism for  appearing  in  Parliament  in  a  shabby 
suit  made  by  a  country  tailor ;  but  the  brilliant 
dresses  in  his  uncle's  hall  must  have  delighted 
him,  especially  the  Scottish  ones.  But  the  grand 
sight  was  the  knighting.  The  king,  in  all  his 
glory  of  adornment,  surrounded  by  the  glitter- 
ing crowd,  had  kneeling  at  his  feet  the  subjects 
who  henceforth  were  to  belong  to  a  noble  order 
which  could  be  traced  far  back  of  the  Plantag- 
enets  into  dim  antiquity.  It  is  to  be  regretted 
if  Uncle  Oliver  did  not  secure  for  his  godson  a 
good  position  where  he  could  see  all  that  was 
going  on  ;  if,  however,  Oliver,  at  the  age  of  four, 
had  any  of  the  persistency  which  marked  his 
later  life,  he  did  not  need  his  uncle's  help. 

It  rather  detracts  from  the  value  and  dignity 
of  James's  knights  to  know,  as  we  do  from  his- 
tory, that  he  made  more  than  two  hundred  of 
them  before  he  had  been  in  England  six  months  ; 
but,  happily,  it  was  not  known  at  Hinchinbrook, 
when  he  was  there,  that  he  would  belittle  the 
honor  by  the  profusion  of  his  favors.  Queen 
Elizabeth  had  been  blamed  for  making  so  few 
knights  ;  James,  it  was  soon  thought,  had  made 
too  many. 


56  EARLY    LIFE. 

Royalists  have  related  that  in  the  following 
year,  1604,  little  Prince  Charles,  then  four  years 
old,  on  his  way  from  Scotland  to  London  was 
taken  to  Hinchinbrook  ;  that  the  two  boys  met 
there  and  got  into  a  quarrel  in  which  Oliver 
gave  the  Prince  a  bloody  nose.  This  is  the 
tradition.  Probably  the  boys  met,  played  to- 
gether, may  have  quarreled,  but  there  is  no 
evidence  to  be  found  relating  to  this  matter. 
Royalists  must  have  been  short  of  material 
adverse  to  Oliver  when  they  put  this  report  into 
English  history. 

Historians  have  written  not  a  little,  in  order 
to  put  a  mark  of  disgrace  on  Cromwell,  in  con- 
nection with  the  brewing  business.  Brewer  is  a 
common  title  of  the  Protector,  even  now,  and 
especially  here  in  New  England.  The  earliest 
Stuart  writer  on  this  matter  says  that  he  was  not 
p,  brewer,  that  the  brewing  was  done  by  his  father. 
There  is  not,  however,  the  least  proof  that  the 
father  carried  on  brewing  as  a  business.  The 
income  of  the  family,  six  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
would  indicate  that  selling  beer  was  not  the 
source  of  so  large  a  revenue.  There  was  no  lea 
or  coffee  in  Huntingdon  or  in  England  during 
Robert  Cromwell's  life:  beer  was  a  universal 
drink,  and  it   is  probable  thai   a   thrifty   farmer 


EARLY    LIFE.  57 

would  convert  a  part  of  his  grain  into  that 
beverage. 

In  the  year  1617,  King  James  is  again  at 
Hinchinbrook.  He  is  on  his  way  to  Scotland. 
His  object  is  to  get  his  Scottish  bishops  to  be 
reverenced  and  financially  supported  by  Presby- 
terian Calvinists  who  hated  the  mere  name  of 
bishop.  Dr.  Laud,  then  king's  chaplain  and 
also  Archdeacon  of  Huntingdon,  is  with  him.  Sir 
Oliver's  purse  is  now  "  growing  lank,"  and  Robert 
Cromwell,  at  his  house  near  by,  is  sick  and  not 
far  from  death.  Oliver  has  been  studying  for  a 
year  at  Cambridge,  in  Sidney-Sussex  College,  the 
focus  of  Puritanism.  Probably  he  was  at  home 
at  the  time  of  the  royal  visit,  but  if  at  home  he 
would  not  seek  to  see  the  king  or  the  archdeacon  ; 
sad  to  tell,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  uncle  would  care 
to  see  his  godson.  It  was  inevitable  that  they 
should  separate.  Sir  Oliver  was  a  devoted  loyal- 
ist ;  Oliver  was  already  so  imbued  with  Puritan- 
ism, and  so  well  informed  of  the  character  and 
of  the  government  of  the  king,  that  intercourse 
between  his  uncle  and  himself  could  hardly  be 
agreeable. 

The  after  story  is  a  very  dismal  one,  and  it  is 
all  comprehended  in  a  few  bare  cold  facts  of 
history.      Not  a  letter  now  extant  alludes  to  it ; 


58  EARLY    LIFE. 

not  a  writer  can  tell  it  in  its  particulars.  That 
Oliver  suffered,  that  he  suffered  keenly  at  the 
estrangement,  even  into  the  time  of  the  Protec- 
torate, into  which  his  uncle  lived,  his  general 
character,  his  humane  feelings  compel  us  to  be- 
lieve ;  that  the  uncle  was  overwhelmed,  sorrow 
stricken,  at  what  he  deemed  the  disgraceful  dis- 
loyalty of  his  nephew,  cannot  for  a  moment  be 
doubted. 

What  a  scene,  that  at  Ramsey,  off  in  the  fens, 
soon  after  the  war  broke  out.  The  uncle  was 
living  there,  "  having  burned  out  his  splen- 
dors "  at  Hinchinbrook,  and  Oliver,  now  Captain 
Cromwell,  is  compelled  by  his  duty  to  the  Parlia- 
ment to  search  his  house  for  arms,  which  might, 
if  not  secured,  be  sent  to  the  king  at  York. 
The  old  books  say  that  Captain  Cromwell  stood 
"  uncovered  "in  the  presence  of  his  uncle  while 
the  search  was  going  on  ;  what  they  said,  what 
they  thought,  no  one  can  ever  know.  Friend- 
ships were  broken,  families  were  torn  asunder 
in  the  civil  war  ;  but  there  was  no  sadder  sight 
than  that  at  Ramsey,  when  Sir  Oliver  Crom- 
well saw  standing  before  him  with  uncovered 
head,  the  Parliament  officer  at  whose  christening 
in  infancy  lie  had  stood  as  godfather. 

One  or  two   more   Eacts   will   bring  us    to   the 


EARLY    LIFE.  59 

funning-  life  of  our  hero.  His  father  died  in  1617, 
and  he  at  once  left  Cambridge.  He  returned  to 
his  home  to  live  with  his  mother,  and  to  take  the 
care  of  the  estate.  Royalist  writers  say,  that  the 
"  blade,"  in  early  life,  wasted  his  time  and  prop- 
erty in  dissipation,  but  there  is  no  proof  offered 
by  them,  and  the  known  facts  of  his  life  are 
certainly  against  this  theory.  Some  months  after 
his  father's  death  he  went  to  London,  probably  to 
get  such  knowledge  of  law  as  would  be  useful  to 
a  citizen,  and  there  he  is  married  to  Elizabeth 
Bourchier,  to  whom,  thirty  years  later,  he  could 
write,  "  Thou  art  dearer  to  me  than  any  crea- 
ture." A  record  of  the  marriage  now  stands  in 
the  old  registry  of  St.  Giles's  Church,  Cripple- 
gate.  The  time  was  August,  1G20.  It  was  the 
month  when  the  Mayflower,  in  the  harbor  of 
Southampton,  took  on  board  the  pilgrims  who 
were  to  land  at  Plymouth.  He  soon  took  his 
wife  to  Huntingdon,  and  there,  in  the  same  house 
with  his  mother,  begins  his  life  as  a  farmer. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


FARMER. 


To  make  Oliver  Cromwell  visible  as  a  farmer, 
with  only  four  of  his  letters  to  throw  light  on  his 
farming  life,  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  do;  and  yet, 
some  attempt  to  portray  him  in   that  character 
is  suggested  by  the  little   that   is  known  of  his 
twenty  years  of  life  in  that  occupation.     Some 
conception   of  his  surroundings,  of  his  lands,  of 
his   duties    and   cares,    may    be  derived    from    en- 
cyclopaedias, and  from  Carlyle's  descriptions ;  and 
not  a  little  may  be    inferred    from  what  Doctor 
William     Klliot    Griffis     has    written     in    "  The 
Influence  of   the   Netherlands    in   the   Making  of 
be    English  Commonwealth,   and  the   American 
Republic." 

Oliver  spent  ten  years  as  a  farmer  in  his  home 
of   Huntingdon,  six   years  at  St.  Ives,  which   \\a> 


FARMER.  Gl 

only  five  miles  away,  and  four  years  at  Ely,  a 
cathedral  town,  which  was  also  but  a  short  dis- 
tance from  his  early  home. 

There  were  influences  about  him,  through  all 
these  twenty  years,  which  tended  to  the  formation 
of  a  thoughtful  and  strong  character.  He  lived 
through  these  years  in  that  part  of  England  (in 
one  of  the  eastern  counties)  where  lived  nearly 
all  the  great  English  patriots  of  the  early  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  where  were  born 
most  of  those  emigrants  who  fled  from  James  I. 
and  Charles  I.  to  New  England.  Going  over  the 
meadows  and  through  the  bogs  with  his  branding- 
iron,  which  the  Eev.  Mark  Noble  says  was  in 
existence  in  his  day,  and  which  would  be  better 
worth  seeing  now  than  any  crown  which  kings 
have  worn,  this  young  man,  Oliver,  was  learning 
something  all  the  time  outside  of  his  farming- 
operations  ;  and  in  his  hours  of  leisure  he  came 
in  contact  with  not  a  few  of  the  great  men  who 
were  beoinnins:  a  work  which  was  to  end  in  the 
extinction  of  those  imperial  "  shining  jewels," 
the  "  Star  Chamber,'"  and  the  "  High  Commission 
Courts,"  and  in  the  overthrow  of  an  oppressive 
Government. 

He  was  twenty  years  old  when  he  began  his 
farming  life;  he  was  forty-one  when  he  quitted 


62  FARMER. 

it.  Among  the  men  with  whom  he  consorted, 
dining  this  period  of  his  life,  and  who  were  lead- 
ers on  the  side  of  liberty,  were  some  of  his  own 
relations. 

Sir  William  Masham,  "  a  busy  man  in  the 
politics  of  his  time,"  was  a  cousin.  St.  John, 
the  celebrated  ship-money  lawyer,  who  defended 
Hampden  in  the  great  lawsuit  of  1637,  was  mar- 
ried to  one  of  his  cousins.  Hampden  himself, 
whose  statue  now  stands  in  St.  Stephen's  Hall, 
"  to  represent  the  noblest  type  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary opposition,"  was  the  son  of  his  father's 
sister.  "With  these  men,  and  others  like  them,  he 
associated,  and  from  them  he  learned  of  what 
was  going  on  at  the  court  and  in  the  country. 

When  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  in  the  year  1567, 
with  a  few  strokes  of  his  pen  doomed  to  death 
from  eighty  to  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants 
of  the  Netherlands,  he  little  foresaw  all  the  results 
of  that  decision.  He  little  dreamed  that  Alva's 
work  would  sow  the  seeds  of  liberty  on  the 
eastern  shores  of  England,  and  that  those  seeds 
would,  within  a  century,  be  scattered  beyond  the 
Atlantic  on  a  continent  which  would  one  day  more 
than  rival  his  South  American  dominions.  Yet 
such  was  the  fact.  Dr.  Grifris  has  demonstrated 
that  fact,  ami   the   present  writer  will    take  the 


FARMER.  G3 

liberty  to  use  some  of  his  statements.  He  says 
that  before  the  end  of  Alva's  rule  between  eighty 
and  one  hundred  thousand  persons  found  a  home 
in  England ;  that  most  of  these  refugees  settled 
in  the  eastern  counties ;  that  they  made  great 
changes  there ;  that  they  introduced  table  vege- 
tables and  the  cultivation  of  winter  roots,  which 
were  unknown  before  they  came  ;  that  they 
drained  the  fens  and  taught  the  people  to  culti- 
vate the  land  ;  that  to  these  Dutchmen,  who,  in 
all  kinds  of  cultivation  and  in  all  kinds  of  knowl- 
edge, "  in  the  fine  arts,  music,  civic  architecture, 
painting,  science,  learning,  agriculture,  inventions, 
organized  industries,  navigation,  finance,  political 
science,"  were  far  superior  to  the  English,  may 
be  traced  influences  which,  in  no  small  degree, 
led  to  changes,  not  only  in  the  industrial,  but  in 
the  political  and  religious  conditions  of  the  coun- 
try. Under  the  industry  of  these  Hollanders 
"  the  fens  of  Eastern  England  became  a  garden," 
and  Dr.  Griffls  claims  that  nearly  all  the  polit- 
ical institutions  peculiarly  American  came  out  of 
Holland  and  not  out  of  England. 

Cromwell,  during  his  farmer  life,  could  not 
fail  to  have  association  and  close  intercourse  with 
these  Dutch  settlers.  He  probably  knew  some 
of  the  earlier  refugees,  for  Alva  continued  his 


G4  FARMER. 

destructive  work  for  nearly  twenty  years  —  until 
1573  — when  he  returned  to  Philip,  and  was  able 
to  report  that,  besides  those  whom  he  had  slain  in 
battle,  there  were  eighteen  thousand  whom  his 
"  Court  of  Blood  "  had  executed,  and  that  there 
were  about  one  hundred  thousand  who  had  left 
the  country  and  gone  into  exile.  Not  only  is  it 
certain  that  Oliver  knew  many  of  these  Dutch 
refugees,  but  it  is  probable  that  he  employed 
some  of  them  on  his  lands.  The  same  sympathy 
which  led  him,  when  Protector,  to  watch  over 
persecuted  Protestants  abroad,  would  lend  him 
to  give  aid  to  those  who  had  been  compelled,  in 
exile,  to  seek  employment. 

Many  of  these  refugees  were  learned  men,  hold- 
ing views  about  government  and  freedom  of 
which  Englishmen,  in  Elizabeth's  time  and  later, 
had  no  conception  :  it  is  not  at  all  improbable 
that  Oliver,  the  farmer,  acquired,  in  no  small 
degree  from  them,  that  knowledge  and  that  spirit 
which  led  him,  later  on  in  life,  when  the  Euro- 
pean world  was  clamoring  for  the  divine  right  of 
Icings,  to  become  the  advocate  and  the  supporter 
of  the  divine  right  of  the  people. 

It  is  a  fact  well  proved  that  this  farmer's  ac- 
tivities w.rr  not  confined  to  the  cultivation  of  his 
lands  or  the  care  of  his  cattle.      It  is  proved  that 


PARMER.  65 


he  was  not  a  selfish  accumulator.  It  is  proved 
that  his  heart  went  out  toward  those  in  distress. 
He  was  known  in  his  day  as  the  friend  of  the 
poor.  There  are,  indeed,  but  four  letters  which 
remain  to  throw  light  on  these  twenty  years,  but 
it  happens  that  two  of  the  four  letters  relate  ex- 
clusively to  charities,  one  written  in  the  interest 
of  a  clergyman,  and  the  other  in  the  interest  of 
a  poor  old  siek  man ;  and  it  happens,  too,  that 
the  third  letter  asks  the  person  to  whom  it  is 
addressed  to  put  a  certain  gentleman  in  mind 
"  to  do  what  he  can  for  the  poor  cousin  I  did 
solicit  him  about."  Now,  when  three  out  of  four 
extant  letters  are  of  this  sort,  it  may  be  inferred 
that  kind  deeds  were  done  all  through  the  farm- 
ing  life.  Few  modern  philanthropists,  can  show 
such  good  proportionate  records  as  Oliver,  in  tho 
matter  of  charity  letters  and  charity  works. 

*  The  reader  will  mark  that  these  three  letters 
were  written  voluntarily  ;  that  they  came  naturally 
out  of  his  warm  and  generous  heart.  The  fourth 
of  the  letters,  all  that  are  left  of  the  twenty  years 
of  farming  life,  is  the  first  of  his  extant  letters, 
and  a  notable  one  ;  it  is  embraced  in  the  chapter 
on  "  Letters." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  just  what  kind 
of  a  farmer  Oliver  was,   how  much   he   worked 


60  FARMER. 

himself  ;  how  much  labor  he  got  out  of  his  hoys, 
Richard  and  Henry  :  how  he  lived  as  to  his  table  ; 
how  he  dressed  ;  if  the  Dutch  taught  him  to  have 
a  vegetable  garden,  a  rare  luxury  in  England, 
then  ;  if  he  made  a  financial  success  with  his 
cows  and  sheep,  but  these  things  and  many 
others  we  shall  never  know  about.  Almost  the 
only  light  from  these  farms  conies  to  us  through 
the  charity  letters.  Still,  it  is  pleasant  for  the 
present  writer  to  think  that  he  was  a  rather  suc- 
cessful farmer.  He  knows  that  when  Oliver  went 
up  to  the  Parliament  of  1640,  which  was  the  end 
of  his  farming  life,  he  had  money,  and  enough 
of  it  to  enable  him  to  subscribe  largely  to  the 
war  fund,  although  the  Rev.  Dr.  South  intimates 
that  his  hat  and  coat  were  not  paid  for. 

The  early  Stuart  historians  would  lead  their 
readers  to  believe  that  Oliver  was  rather  a  fail- 
ure as  a  farmer  ;  that  he  was  not  a  wise  and  pru- 
dent farmer ;  that  lie  spent  altogether  too  much 
time  in  praying  when  he  should  have  been  looking 
after  his  idle  men  in  the  fields,  who  were  taking 
advantage  of  his  piety  in  recreation  ;  if  so,  he 
was  a  remarkable  specimen  of  a  hypocrite,  wast- 
ing money  thus  on  his  laborers.  These  old 
royalist  writers  are  sometimes  very  funny,  and 
are  often  inconsistent.     These  writers'  elucidations 


FARMER.  67 

of  Oliver  are  as  much  at  variance  as  the  pictured 
caricatures  which  have  come  down  to  us  from  the 
old  engravers. 

At  one  time  during'  his  farmer  life,  Oliver 
emerged  from  obscurity  and  acquired  the  name, 
or  nickname,  of  "  Lord  of  the  Fens."  The  drain- 
age of  the  fens  meant  the  carrying  of  the  water 
of  the  river  Ouse  twenty  miles  direct  to  the  sea, 
and  the  prevention  of  its  overflowing  large  por- 
tions of  the  country.  It  was  a  great  work  for 
those  times,  and  promised  to  make  cultivable 
lands  that  were  useless.  The  idea  of  it,  most 
likely,  came  from  the  Dutch.  The  work  was 
nearly  completed,  when  the  king,  in  council,  at- 
tempted to  do  a  public  injustice  in  regard  to  it. 
Thereupon  a  great  meeting  was  held  in  Hunting- 
don, farmers  coming  to  it  from  the  surrounding 
country  ;  and  at  the  meeting  Oliver  opposed  the 
interference  of  the  king,  when  that  "  operation 
of  going  in  the  teeth  of  the  royal  will  was  some- 
what more  perilous  than  it  would  be  now."  He 
got  into  trouble  about  the  business,  and  for  a 
short  time  was  deprived  of  his  liberty.  In  his 
"  History  of  the  Rebellion,"  Lord  Clarendon 
refers  to  this  matter,  and  more  than  intimates 
that  Oliver,  in  a  conference  with  him  about  it, 
showed  a  good   deal  of  temper.     This   is  quite 


G8  FARMER. 

credible.  Farmers  living-  on  boggy  wet  lands 
are  inclined  to  secure  drainage  ;  and  if  a  king, 
or  any  one  else,  interferes  with  a  sluice  way  or 
canal  for  carrying  off  excess  of  water,  it  would 
certainly  be  natural  to  show  anger. 

It  is  evident  from  what  occurred  in  connec- 
tion with  this  Huntingdon  meeting  of  citizens, 
were  there  no  other  evidence,  and  from  the  title 
which  Oliver  secured,  that  he  was  an  active  and 
prominent  man  among  his  farmer  neighbors  ;  and 
probably  no  better  councilor  or  magistrate,  or 
more  just  justice  of  the  peace  could  be  found  in 
the  region  where  he  lived. 

The  reader  has  already  discovered  that  only  a 
little  can  be  told  of  the  twenty  years  of  farming ; 
but  that  what  is  discoverable  indicates  a  man  dis- 
charging his  duties  in  a  manful  way,  leading  a 
quiet,  unnoticed  life,  growing  grass  and  raising 
cattle.  We  have  before  us  a  stout,  able-bodied 
Puritan,  who  reads  his  Bible,  says  his  prayers. 
goes  to  church,  has  children  born  to  him,  has 
them  baptized,  leads  an  inoffensive,  humble  life; 
(loo  his  duty  as  to  charity,  interferes  with  what 
lie  thinks  is  wrong  about  fen  drainage;  looks 
after  liis  mother.  Iiis  wife  and  little  children; 
and  learns,  though  a  farmer,  what  he  can  of  what 
is  going  on   in    England,  and  all   this  without  a 


FARMER.  GO 

thought  of  the  wonderful  future  which  lies  before 
him.  Many  a  time,  striding-  over  those  bogs  of 
Huntingdon  and  St.  Ives,  this  farmer  reflected 
on  the  oppressed  condition  of  his  country  ;  but 
it  is  doubtful  if  he  had  then  any  heroic  thoughts 
or  had  one  glimpse  of  future  greatness.  Duty, 
in  his  narrow  sphere,  was  all.  Had  he  ambition 
to  become  a  leader,  had  he  nurtured  such  a  wish 
in  those  quiet  pastures,  years  would  not  have 
passed  after  he  entered  Parliament  without  some 
demonstration  of  that  desire. 

When  first  he  enters  on  public  life  he  is  but 
a  plain  farmer  and  a  gentleman.  He  has,  indeed, 
his  thoughts  on  the  political  problems  of  his  day, 
but  he  is  no  statesman ;  he  has  no  plans,  he  has 
no  thought  except  to  give  his  votes  on  the  side 
of  freedom  from  oppression,  and  liberty  for  those 
enslaved.  Circumstances  made  him.  Acts  of 
others  —  Eliot,  Pym,  Hampden  —  yes,  royalists 
too ;  Falkland,  Wentworth  and  others,  created 
the  conditions  which  brought  him  into  notice, 
and  which  finally  led  him  to  offer  his  service 
to  his  country  in  the  humblest  position  which  a 
srentleman  could  hold,  without  a  title  and  without 
a  sword. 

It  was  in  the  second  year  of  Oliver's  residence 
at  St.  Ives  —  1632  —  that   Sir  John   Eliot,  an 


70 


FARMER. 


acquaintance  and  probably  a  friend,  died  in  the 
Tower.  The  Parliament  of  1G28  contained  many 
great  statesmen,  but  there  were  amono-  them 
none  who  in  genius,  in  power  of  using  language, 
in  loftiness  of  purpose,  and  devotion  to  his  coun- 
try surpassed  this  great  orator.  The  fragments 
of  his  speeches,  which  can  now  be  read,  indicate 
a  man  of  superior  ability,  and  a  patriot  inflexible 
in  his  purpose  to  reform  the  Government.  Pie 
was  one  of  those  who,  with  Wentworth,  then  on 
the  side  of  the  people,  framed  the  "  Petition  of 
Right,"  asking  that  no  taxes  be  raised  without 
the  consent  of  Parliament,  and  that  no  freeman 
shall  be  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  pay  taxes  im- 
posed by  the  king  alone ;  and,  on  the  last  day  of 
the  sitting,  he  spoke  against  yielding  to  the  un- 
just demands  of  Charles. 

A  few  days  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Parlia- 
ment, he  and  others  were  summoned  to  appear 
before  the  king's  council,  and  after  examination 
were  committed  to  prison.  All  but  Eliot  after  a 
time  were  set  at  liberty,  not  by  mercy,  but  rather 
from  fear,  warnings  of  trouble  in  the  country 
having  reached  the  king.  Eliot's  appeals  were 
unavailing.  lie  remained  in  the  Tower  for  four 
years,  until  1032,  and  a  few  weeks  after  asking 
for  temporary  release,  on  account  of  his  impaired 


FARMER.  71 

health,  telling  Ilis  Majesty  at  the  same  time  that 
he  was  sorry  to  have  displeased  him,  he  died 
there,  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  English  liberty. 
Eliot  was  not  a  Puritan  ;  he  was  simply  the  ad- 
vocate of  a  government  for  the  people,  and  not 
for  the  exclusive  use  and  benefit  of  the  king. 

Oliver  was  a  member,  a  farmer  member,  of 
that  Parliament  of  1628 ;  he  doubtless  heard 
the  speeches  made  by  Eliot,  and  after  the  Par- 
liament was  ended  he  had  eleven  years,  up  to 
the  Parliament  of  1640,  to  reflect  upon  them. 
They  were  speeches  not  to  be  forgotten.  Many 
years  have  passed  since  the  present  writer  read 
them,  but  the  impressions  which  they  left  have 
not  been  effaced.  What,  then,  must  have  been 
their  effect  on  one  who  heard  them,  and  was  an 
observer  and  an  actor  in  the  politics  of  the  time! 

Children  were  born  to  Oliver  during  the  years 
now  covered,  but  it  is  needless  here  to  record 
even  their  names. 

In  the  year  1636,  another  change  of  residence 
is  made.  Oliver  now  succeeds  to  an  uncle's 
property  at  Ely.  Sir  Thomas  Steward,  Knight, 
his  mother's  brother,  has  made  him  his  principal 
heir,  and  he  will  no  longer  watch  over  cattle  in 
the  bogs  of  St.  Ives,  or  walk  through  the  narrow 
lanes,  or  along  the  banks  of  the  black  river  Ouse. 


72  FARMER. 

He  becomes  a  resident  of  a  cathedral  town. 
"  His  mother  appears  to  have  joined  him  at  Ely  ; 
she  quitted  Huntingdon,  returns  to  her  native 
place,  an  aged  grandmother,  was  not,  however,' 
to  end  her  days  there." 

Dugdale,  one  of  the  old  vituperative  writers, 
has  an  account  of  Oliver's  joining  in  an  attempt, 
in  a  court  of  law,  to  get  lunacy  proved  against 
this  uncle  and  to  deprive  him  of  the  management 
of  his  property.  The  story  of  this  "  act  of  vil- 
lany  "  on  Oliver's  part  is  no  more  credible  than 
Dr.  Bates's  surgical  operation  story,  which  has 
been  related  in  another  chapter.  The  court, 
Dugdale  says,  decided  against  Oliver,  and  the 
uncle  continued  to  manage  his  own  property. 
Sir  Thomas  Steward  was  a  lunatic,  if  after  such 
treatment  from  his  nephew  he  made  him  his  chief 
heir,  which  he  did. 

These  royalist  aspersions,  so  often  referred  to, 
it  may  be  are  getting  to  be  wearisome  to  the 
reader  ;  but  the  writer  feels  compelled  to  give  the 
Stuart  historians,  so  far  as  is  possible,  a  full  and 
fair  showing.  The  reproduction  of  some  charges 
which  they  brought  against  Cromwell  would  be 
indeed  unbecoming.  We  want  no  concealment 
excepi  where  it  is  necessary.  It  is  due  to 
Oliver's  memory  that   the  views  of  his  contem- 


PARMER.  73 

poraries,  and  of  such  later  adverse  writers  as  we 
have  room  for,  should  be  distinctly  brought  out 
in  this  book.  We  therefore  quote  from  "  Crom- 
welliana,"  a  passage  alluded  to  before,  relating 
to  this  Steward  property,  and  which  reflects  in 
other  particulars  on  Oliver's  character.  "  This, 
our  Oliver,"  says  the  remarkable  book,  which 
contains  extracts  from  more  than  a  hundred 
newspapers,  published  during  the  civil  wars, 
"  this,  our  Oliver,  was  of  Mr.  Robert  Cromwell, 
a  gentleman  who  went  no  less  in  esteem  and 
reputation  than  any  of  his  ancestors,  for  his  per- 
sonal worth,  until  his  unfortunate  production  of 
this  his  son  and  heir,  whom  he  had  by  his  wife 
Elizabeth  Steward,  a  niece  of  Sir  Thomas  Steward, 
a  gentleman  of  competent  fortune  in  this  county, 
but  of  such  a  malignant  effect  on  the  course  of 
this  his  nephew's  life,  that,  if  all  the  lands  he 
gave  him  (as  some  were  fenny  ground)  had 
been  irrecoverably  lost,  it  might  have  passed  for 
a  good  Providence,  and  happy  prevention  of 
those  ruins  he  caused  in  the  three  kingdoms. 
For  that  estate  continued  him  here,  after  his  de- 
bauchery had  wasted  and  consumed  his  own 
patrimony,  and  diverted  him  from  a  resolution 
of  going  into  New  England,  the  Harbour  of  non- 
conformists, which  design,  upon  his  sudden  and 


74  FARMER. 

miraculous  conversion,  first  to  a  civil  and  relig- 
ious deportment,  and  thence  to  a  sour  puritanism 
lie  straitwith  abandoned  ;  by  the  former  repent- 
ance he  gained  the  good  will  and  affection  of  the 
orthodox  clergy,  who,  by  their  persuasions  and 
charitable  insinuations,  wrought  him  into  Sir 
Robert  Steward's  favor,  insomuch  that  he  de- 
clared him  his  heir  to  an  estate  of  five  hundred 
pounds  a  year ;  by  his  second  change  to  non- 
conformity and  scrupulous  sanctity,  he  gained 
the  estimation  and  favor  of  the  faction  ;  some  of 
the  heads  whereof,  viz.,  Mr.  Hampden  and  Mas- 
ter Goodwin,  procured  him  the  match  with  a  kins- 
woman of  theirs,  Mistress  Elizabeth  Boucher 
aforesaid,  the  daughter  of  Sir  James  Boucher  ; 
and  afterward  got  him  chosen  a  burgess  for 
Cambridge,  by  their  interest  in  that  town,  which 
was  totally  infected  with  Puritanism  and  Zealotry, 
and  this  was  his  first  projection  and  design  of 
ambition,  besides  that  it  privileged  him  from 
arrests,  his  estate  being  sunk  again,  and  not  to 
be  repaired  but  by  the  general  ruin." 

W'c  had  copied  this  extract  from  "Cromwelli- 
ana"  (published  at  Westminster,  1810),  when  to 
our  joy  we  found  that  the  passage  was  from  I  Icath. 
This  is  our  firsl  sight  of  anything  from  Carrion 
lh  aih  who.  it  will   he   remembered,  Carlyle  says 


FARMER.  75 

was  the  chief  fountain  from  which  later  historians 
drew  their  supplies.  The  passage  is  a  curious 
one  and  suggests  analyzing,  but  we  let  it  stand 
without  comment,  so  that  the  haters  of  Cromwell 
may  have  the  full  benefit  of  it. 

While  living  at  Ely  and  still  a  farmer,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-nine,  Oliver  wrote  a  pious  letter  to 
his  cousin,  Mrs.  St.  John,  in  reply  to  a  letter 
from  her  which  evidently  contained  some  rather 
nattering  and  pleasant  expressions,  called  forth 
by  a  visit  lately  paid  to  her.  Oliver  writes  : 
"  Truly  no  poor  creature  hath  more  cause  to  put 
himself  forth  in  the  cause  of  God  than  I.  I 
have  had  plentiful  wages  beforehand,  and  I  am 
sure  I  shall  never  earn  the  least  mite.  The 
Lord  accept  me  in  his  Son,  and  give  me  to  walk 
in  the  light "  .  .  .  "  blessed  be  his  name 
for  shining  upon  so  dark  a  heart  as  mine.  You 
know  what  my  manner  of  life  hath  been.  Oh ! 
I  lived  in  and  loved  darkness,  and  hated  the 
light.  I  was  a  chief,  the  chief  of  sinners.  This 
is  true,  I  hated  godliness,  yet  God  had  mercy  on 
me.     Oh !  the  riches  of  his  mercy." 

Carlyle  thus  comments  on  this  letter :  "  Rev. 
Mark  Noble,  my  reverend  imbecile  friend,  dis- 
covers in  this  letter  clear  evidence  that  Oliver 
was   once  a   very   dissolute    man ;    that    Carrion 


76  FARMER. 

Heath  spake  truth  in  that  Flagellum  balderdash 
of  his.  O,  my  reverend  imbecile  friend  !  had'st 
thou  thyself  never  any  moral  life,  but  only  a 
sensitive  and  digestive  ?  Thy  soul  never  longed 
toward  the  serene  heights,  all  hidden  from  thee, 
and  thirsted  as  the  hart  in  dry  places,  where  no 
water  be  ?  It  was  never  a  sorrow  to  thee  that 
the  eternal  pole  star  had  gone  out,  veiled  itself 
in  dark  clouds  ;  a  sorrow  only  that  this  or  the 
other  noble  patron  forgot  thee  when  a  living  fell 
vacant."  So  much  for  Mark  Noble, who  brought 
out  his  book  on  Cromwell  in  1787. 

Again  :  "  O,  modern  reader  !  dark  as  this  letter 
may  seem,  I  will  advise  thee  to  make  an  attempt 
toward  understanding  it.  There  is  in  it  a  tradi- 
tion of  humanity  worth  all  the  rest.  Indisput- 
able certificate  that  man  once  had  a  sYml :  thai 
man  once  walked  with  God,  his  life  a  sacred 
island  girdled  with  the  Eternities  and  Godheads. 
Was  it  not  a  time  for  heroes?  Heroes  were  then 
possible."  .  .  .  '"Yes,  there  is  a  tone  in  the 
soul  of  this  Oliver  that  holds  of  the  Perennial. 
With  a  noble  sorrow,  with  a  noble  patience,  he 
Longs  toward  the  mark  of  the  prize  of  the  high 
falling.  He,  I  think,  lias  chosen  the  better  part." 
.  "  Annihilation  of  self "  .  .  .  ''cast- 
ing yourself  at  the  footstool   of   God's   throne  to 


FARMER.  77 

live  or  die  forever ;  as  Thou  wilt,  not  as  I  will." 
"  Brother, had' st  thou  never  in  any  form 

such  moments  in  thy  history?  Thou  knowest 
them  not  even  by  credible  rumor  ?  Well,  thy 
earthly  path  was  peaceabler,  I  suppose.  But 
the  highest  was  never  in  thee ;  the  highest  will 
never  come  out  of  thee." 

The  later  domestic  life  of  Oliver  can  be  best 
told  and  understood,  after  we  have  related  his 
career  as  a  warrior  and  a  ruler. 


CHAPTER   V. 


WARRIOR. 


Carlyle  collected  the  Cromwell  letters  and 
speeches,  and  made  elucidations  on  them,  with  a 
view  to  a  history  of  the  English  Revolution  of 
the  seventeenth  century  ;  but  he  left  his  work  as 
it  now  stands,  a  remarkable  mixture;  conglom- 
erations such  as  no  historian  before  him  ever  at- 
tempted, or,  probably,  in  the  future,  ever  will 
attempt ;  a  mixed  mass,  illuminated  however, 
scintillated,  we  may  say,  by  his  unparalleled 
genius. 

On  one  page  we  have  a  picture  of  a  battle,  on 
tlic  next  page  a  letter  from  Oliver  to  his  wife. 
Here  we  have  a  letter  to  a  daughter,  and  in  close 
proximity  an  account  of  the  Irish  war.  Within 
a  space  of  six  pages  we  find  a  letter  to  "  Dick 
Norton,"   a   record    of    the    king's    execution,   a 


WARRIOR.  79 

soldier's  pass,  a  letter  to  Mayor  about  Richard's 
marriage,  an  order  of  the  Council  of  State  and 
a  request  for  lending  out  some  books  from  the 
St.  James's  Library.  This  want  of  arrangement 
makes  it  difficult  to  keep  the  historical  parts  of 
the  work  connected  and  clear  in  the  mind  ;  but 
at  the  same  time  it  gives  a  peculiar  interest  to 
the  narrative. 

It  has  occurred  to  the  writer,  instead  of  follow- 
ing the  plan  of  Carlyle's  book,  to  separate  the 
materials  collected  from  it,  and  from  other  sources, 
and  to  make  a  chapter  in  connection  with  the 
civil  war,  to  be  followed  by  a  chapter  on  Oliver's 
connection  with  the  Parliament,  and  the  offer  of 
kingship.  Oliver's  place  in  Parliament  was  not 
prominent  prior  to  the  war ;  and  for  that  reason, 
too,  it  will  be  best  to  trace  his  course  as  a  soldier 
before  telling  the  story  of  his  life  in  connection 
with  the  Government.  The  two  lives,  that  of  a 
warrior  and  that  of  a  statesman  are,  it  is  true, 
contemporaneous ;  but  a  clearer  view  of  the  man 
will  be  secured  by  separating,  in  our  account  of 
him,  his  course  in  the  war  from  his  course  in 
legislation. 

It  has  been  remarked  by  an  English  historian, 
that  the  attempt  of  Charles  I.  to  seize  the  five 
members  of  his  Parliament  for  imprisonment,  in 


80  WARRIOR. 

the  year  1G42,  was  undoubtedly  the  real  cause  of 
the  civil  war  ;  but  this  fatal  action  on  the  king's 
part  was  only  the  culmination  of  a  tyranny  which 
had  long  exasperated  the  people  of  England,  and 
was  rather  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  out- 
break than  the  real  ground  of  it. 

The  causes  of  the  great  contest  may  be  traced 
far  back  into  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth ;  they 
were  augmented  by  the  atrocities  of  the  govern- 
ment of  James  I.,  and  they  became  more  and 
more  intolerable  during  the  eleven  years  when 
Charles  I.  governed  the  country  without  legisla- 
tion, violating  his  most  sacred  promises,  and  re- 
ducing his  subjects  to  a  condition  of  servitude, 
both  as  regards  their  political  rights  and  their 
religious  liberties. 

Opposition  to  the  Government,  through  legisla- 
tion, was  not  attempted  in  the  time  of  Henry 
VIII.,  though  the  Parliament  met  nearly  every 
year  ;  and  it  was  feeble  all  through  the  years  of 
Elizabeth's  rule  in  the  few  Parliaments  which 
were  called  by  this  queen.  In  that  of  1576,  she 
gave  the  Commons  to  understand  that  she  would 
rule  the  pulpits  of  the  church,  and  she  prohibited 
Puritan  conventicles.  But  little  effort  was  made 
to  interfere  with  her  prerogative;  but  at  that 
early  period   there   were   complaints   that  a  few 


SECOND  GREAT  SEAL  OF  PROTECTOR   OLIVER  CROMWELL: 

OBVERSE. 


WARRIOR.  81 

persons  about  the  court  were  made  rich  at  the 
expense  of  honest  merchants  who  secured  no 
royal  favor.  Puritanism  broke  out  in  the  Parlia- 
ment of  1581,  in  the  person  of  Paul  Wcntworth, 
and  his  bill  for  a  "  Fast  for  the  House,"  and  "  Ser- 
mons," was  carried  by  a  majority  of  fifteen  ;  but 
Elizabeth,  the  day  after  the  passage  of  the  bill, 
sent  word  that  she  did  not  approve  of  such  pro- 
ceedings, and  she  called  for  the  rescinding  of  the 
resolution.  The  Parliament  yielded  to  her  voice 
of  authority. 

Froude  tells  us  that  the  Episcopal  Church 
might  not  have  been  saved  but  for  the  young 
Puritans ;  that  without  the  support  of  the  Puritans 
Elizabeth  would  have  "  changed  her  palace  for  a 
prison,  and  her  scepter  for  a  distaff ;  "  that 
"through  all  her  trials"  (touching  the  Church 
of  Rome)  "  they  had  been  true  as  steel."  But 
the  time  came,  during  her  reign,  when  the  Puri- 
tans were  persecuted ;  when  Penry  was  hanged, 
and  Udal  condemned  to  die  in  prison. 

No  strong  opposition,  however,  was  made 
against  Elizabeth,  nor  was  opposition  to  the 
Government  in  James's  time  at  all  commensu- 
rate with  the  injustice  which  marked  the  king's 
government.  The  day  of  triumph  for  the  Puri- 
tans came  at  last ;  and  it  came  with  vengeance  ; 


82  WARRIOR. 

with  crime,  according  to  the  royalists,  une- 
qualed  in  the  annals  of  history;  with  a  death- 
sentence  passed  on  an  anointed,  sacred  kino- ; 
came,  said  John  Milton  and  other  Puritans,  said 
Cromwell  and  the  fifty-eight  judges  with  him, 
as  an  act  of  justice  due  to  freemen,  whose  rights 
had  been  trampled  on  for  fifty  years  and  more, 
and  as  an  act  of  mercy  to  future  generations- 
of  Englishmen. 

It  is  pertinent  here  to  say  that  Cromwell  had 
but  little  share  with  those  who  brought  about  the 
civil  war.  He  took  no  part  in  the  debates  pre- 
ceding the  time  when  Charles  left  Whitehall. 
The  opposition  of  Eliot,  Pym  and  others  to  the 
Government  began  long  before  he  had  a  seat  in 
St.  Stephen's  Hall.  Though  on  committees,  soon 
after  the  Parliament  of  1640  met,  there  is  no 
proof  that  he  was  looked  on  as  a  man  who 
would  be  likely  to  take  a  prominent  place  in  the 
affairs  of  the  nation.  His  cousin  Hampden 
knew  what  was  in  him,  knew  him  to  be  a 
man  of  power;  but  others  were  ignorant  of 
that  fact.  When  it  was  decided  that  there  must 
be  a  war,  he  offered  his  services  simply  as  a 
recruiting  officer. 

One  is  inclined  to  wonder  that  patience  and  in- 
action lasted  so  long:  to  wonder  that  resistance  to 


SECOND   GREAT   SEAL  OF  PROTECTOR   OLIVER   CROMWELL 

REVERSE. 


WARRIOR.  83 

prerogative  did  not  earlier  take  a  more  aggres- 
sive and  violent  form ;  that  the  Puritans,  when 
Charles  declared,  soon  after  he  was  crowned, 
that  Parliaments  were  wholly  in  his  power,  to  be 
or  not  to  be,  did  not  attempt  to  hurl  him  from 
his  throne.  But  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe;  it 
was  needed  that  promise  after  promise  should  be 
violated ;  that  oppression  should  succeed  oppres- 
sion ;  that  perfidy  should  again  and  again  be 
followed  by  a  semblance  of  repentance  ;  that  the 
Star  Chamber  should  overwhelm  with  terror,  and 
then  mutilate  and  imprison  those  whose  only 
crimes  were  an  aversion  to  ritualism,  and  the 
practice  of  a  simple  worship  which  they  loved ; 
that  the  people  should  wait  through  long  years 
of  tyranny,  until  the  king  had  entered  St. 
Stephen's  Hall  with  armed  followers,  to  arrest 
members  of  the  Commons,  and  had  gone  to 
York  to  raise  an  army  to  enforce  his  rights,  or 
what  he  deemed  his  rights.  And  even  then  the 
Puritans  did  not  begin  the  contest  until  efforts 
to  bring  back  the  king  had  failed  ;  and  if  at 
any  time  during  the  seven  years  which  intervened 
between  his  leaving  Whitehall  and  his  death, 
three  of  which  years  were  spent  in  war,  while  no 
small  part  of  the  remaining  four  were  spent  in 
negotiations,   Charles  had   been  willing  to  drop 


84  WARRIOR. 

the  one  word  prerogative  from  his  vocabulary, 
Puritans  would  have  welcomed  him  to  the  throne. 
He  began  the  war  for  prerogative,  and  for  that 
onlv.  The  war  transferred  the  Government  to 
the  Parliament,  but  the  Government,  after  the 
king  was  completely  beaten,  still  made  earnest 
efforts  to  restore  him,  with  an  abated  prerogative, 
Cromwell  himself  aiding ;  but  duplicity,  treachery, 
and  clinging  to  prerogative,  at  last  destroyed 
the  monarchy,  and  changed  England  into  a 
Commonwealth. 

It  was  on  the  sixth  of  January,  1G42,  that  the 
abortive  attempt  to  seize  Pym,  Hampden  and 
others  was  made.  Four  days  later  the  king  left 
Whitehall,  abandoning  London  and  the  Parlia- 
ment. It  was  now  evident  that  civil  war  must 
come,  and  as  soon  as  that  was  decided  London 
began  to  supply  the  Parliament  with  funds.  In 
that  city,  within  a  single  day,  four  thousand  men 
were  enlisted  to  light,  if  need  be,  against  their 
king.  Citizens  offered  their  plate  and  women 
their  jewelry. 

Sis  months  pass  before  we  hear  of  Cromwell. 
ELe  does  qoI  appear  until  July.  In  that  month 
"  Mr.  Cromwell "  moves  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons "to  allow  the  townsmen  of  Cambridge  to 
raise  two  companies  of  volunteers,  and  to  appoint 


WARRIOR.  85 

captains  over  them."  The  next  month  it  appears 
that  "  Mr.  Cromwell "  has  seized  the  magazine 
in  the  Castle  of  Cambridge,  and  hath  hindered 
the  carrying  of  the  plate  from  the  University  for 
the  service  of  the  king.  Before  the  month  is 
ended  he  is  Captain  Cromwell ;  captain  of 
"Troup  Sixty-seven."  And  now  begins,  at  the 
age  of  forty-three,  the  life  of  our  hero  as  a 
warrior.  A  farmer  member  of  Parliament  for 
the  first  time  finds  himself  in  military  dress, 
with  a  sword,  and  expected  to  do  a  kind  of  work 
of  which  he  is  ignorant. 

A  month  later,  on  the  twenty-third  of  October, 
he  is  in  Edgehill  battle.  The  battle  decides  noth- 
ing ;  but  while  it  is  going  on,  Oliver  makes  a 
discovery  which  was  to  make  him  and  the  army, 
which  he  afterward  commanded,  world  famous. 
He  discovers  that  the  soldiers  with  whom  he  had 
met  the  king's  army  were  not  of  the  kind  which 
will  bring  success.  The  men  on  the  royal  side 
are  men  of  honor,  gentlemen  who  have  a  deep  in- 
terest in  the  result ;  the  men  secured  on  the  side 
of  the  Parliament  are  "  a  set  of  poor  tapsters," 
and  "  town  apprentices."  This  will  never  do, 
he  thinks  ;  and  then  he  suggests  to  his  cousin 
Hampden  that  men  of  religion,  and  men  who 
have  a  conscientious  interest  in  the  issue  of  the 


86  WARRIOR. 

struggle,  shall  be  enlisted.  Hampden  seems  to 
see  that  the  idea  is  a  good  one,  but  rather  im- 
practicable. Oliver  still  thinks  it  is  practicable. 
At  any  rate,  he  will  try  to  put  it  into  effect.  He 
does  try,  and  he  succeeds. 

The  army,  which  after  a  time  he  raises, 
becomes  the  most  remarkable  one  to  be  found  in 
the  annals  of  Anglo-Saxon  history  ;  the  most 
memorable  that  ever  fought  an  English  battle. 
Cromwell  could  truly  say,  after  it  had  done  its 
work,  that  it  was  never  beaten.  It  was  made  up 
chiefly  of  men  of  religion.  No  hard  drinking 
was  permitted  in  it ;  no  oath  could  be  heard 
without  a  fine.  It  was,  perhaps,  the  first  army 
in  which  violence  to  women  after  victory  was 
unknown.  It  went  into  battle  praying,  and  it 
sang  the  songs  of  David  on  the  field  in  the 
intervals  of  slaughter.  "  The  Lord  of  Hosts  ': 
was  its  battle-cry.  It  received  and  it  deserved 
the  name  of  Ironsides.  It  was  an  army  which 
raised  England  to  a  position  in  Europe  which 
before  she  had  not  held,  and  which  she  erased 
to  hold  when  the  Protectorate  was  over.  It  not 
only  crushed  tin-  armies  of  Charles  I.  and 
Charles  II.,  but  it  was  feared  in  France,  in 
Spain,  in  Africa  and  at  Rome.  The  mere  dread 
of   it  arrested  the  awful  slaughter  of  Protestants 


WARRIOR.  87 

by  the  Duke  of  Savoy  in  the  valley  of  Lucerne; 
stopped  the  regiments  of  Louis  XIV.  when  on 
their  march  to  Nismes  to  punish  and  expel  the 
Huguenots  of  that  city,  and  so  frightened  was 
the  Pope  that  he  started  processions  through  the 
streets  of  Rome  in  order  to  avert  its  power.  It 
made  England  unattackable,  and  the  arbiter  of 
European  nations. 

During  the  winter  of  1G43-44,  Oliver  was 
employed  in  the  eastern  counties,  in  forming  an 
association  for  defense  ;  a  work  which  secured 
those  counties  all  through  the  war  from  inva- 
sions of  the  royal  army.  In  the  month  of 
March  he  receives  the  title  of  colonel ;  and  in 
the  Fen  country,  with  his  regiment  of  horse,  he 
stands  ready  to  "  disperse  royalist  assemblages, 
to  keep  down  disturbance,  and  care  in  every  way 
that  the  Parliament  cause  suffer  no  damage." 

In  May  he  has  a  successful  skirmish  at  Gran- 
tham, and  soon  after  he  raises  the  siege  of 
Croyland.  In  July  he  wins  a  victory  at  Gains- 
borough ;  performs  "  very  gallant  service,"  and 
reports  thus :  "The  honor  of  this  retreat"  (of 
the  enemy)  "  belongs  to  God."  It  was  at  this 
time  that  his  name  began  to  be  talked  about. 
Gainsborough  was  the  beginning  of  "  his  great 
fortunes."     In  August  the  Earl  of  Manchester 


88  WARRIOR. 

accepts  the  control  of  the  Eastern  Association, 
and,  a  little  later,  Oliver  became  his  second  in  com- 
mand. In  October  Cromwell  was  in  the  Winceby 
fight,  and  came  near  to  death.  His  horse  was 
killed,  and  he  was  thrown  to  the  ground ;  as 
he  rose,  he  was  attacked  and  "knocked  down'' 
by  a  royalist.  He  regained  his  feet,  mounted 
the  horse  of  a  soldier,  made  a  charge,  and 
routed  the  enemy.  "My  Lord  of  Manchester 
did  not  get  n})  till  the  battle  was  over." 

In  the  early  part  of  the  next  year,  1644,  the 
Scots,  seemingly  not  thankful  to  King  Charles 
for  what,  with  Archbishop  Land's  help,  he  had 
done  for  them  in  the  matter  of  bishops,  entered 
England  with  an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men 
to  join  the  Parliament  forces  ;  and,  a  few  months 
later,  '"Prince  Rupert,  with  some  twenty  thou- 
sand fierce  men,  came  pouring  over  the  hills 
toward  York,  where  a  royal  force  of  six  thou- 
sand men  were  besieged  by  these  Scots,  under 
Lesley,  joined  by  the  forces  under  Lords  Fair- 
lax  and  Manchester,  and  Cromwell." 

We  have  now  readied  Marston  Moor,  and  it 
is  necessary  (<>  say  that  no  attempt  will  be  made 
to    describe    the    battles    in    which    our   hero   was 

engaged.     We  would  hardly  wish  to  retouch  a 

painting    made    by    a    great    master.        As    space 


WARRIOR.  89 

allows,  limited  quotations  are  made,  but  there 
will  be  no  attempt  to  reproduce  the  pictures  of 
Basing-  Hall  and  Dunbar,  or  other  battle  scenes 
which  Carlyle  has  so  graphically  described. 

The  battle  of  Marston  Moor,  "  the  bloodiest 
of  the  whole  war,"  was  fought  July  2,  1644,  be- 
tween seven  and  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  ;  "  the 
most  enormous  hurly-burly  of  fire  and  smoke 
and  steel  flashings  and  death  tumult  ever  seen  in 
those  regions''  -"four  thousand  one  hundred 
and  fifty  bodies  to  be  buried,  and  total  ruin  to  the 
king's  affairs  in  those  northern  parts."  "The 
Prince  of  Plunderers "  (Rupert),  "  invincible 
hitherto,  here  first  tasted  the  steel  of  Oliver's 
Ironsides,  and  did  not  in  the  least  like  it." 
York  was  taken,  and  Rupert  "  fled  across  into 
Lancashire  to  recruit  again." 

A  few  months  later,  on  the  twenty-seventh  of 
October,  came  the  second  battle  of  Newbury,  which 
was  to  produce  a  very  important  change  in  the 
management  of  the  war.  Manchester  refused  to 
follow  the  king  when  he  was  retiring  from  the  field. 
The  contest  of  four  hours  had  terminated  rather 
to  the  advantage  of  the  Parliament  army,  and 
just  that  opportunity  was  presented  which  the 
Ironsides  needed  for  a  victory.  Cromwell  urged 
Manchester  to  give  the  order  for  an   advance. 


90  WARRIOR. 

Manchester  refused,  and  it  became  evident  to 
Oliver  that  he  was  afraid  of  beating  His  Majesty 
thoroughly.  Twelve  days  later,  when  the  king 
was  taking  supplies  into  Deniugton  Castle,  Oliver 
urged  his  superior  officer  to  permit  an  attack  to 
be  made.  Again  Manchester  refused.  About 
two  weeks  after  this  disagreement  between  these 
officers,  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  November,  Lieut.- 
Gen.  Cromwell,  in  his  place  in  Parliament,  brought 
a  charge  against  the  earl,  "  that  he  hath  always 
been  indisposed  and  backward  to  engagements, 
and  the  ending  of  the  war  by  the  sword"  — 
"  that  he  hath  drawn  the  army  into,  and  detained 
them  in  such  a  position  as  to  give  the  enemy 
fresh  advantages." 

There  was  some  talk  of  prosecuting  Oliver  ; 
but  instead  of  lodging  him  in  the  Tower,  the 
"  Self  Denying  Ordinance  "  was  passed,  and  a 
"  New  Model  *  for  the  army  was  made.  This 
change  called  for  the  retirement  of  all  officers 
who  were  members  of  the  Parliament,  including 
Cromwell,  from  military  service  :  but  it  was  im- 
mediately seen  thai  exceptions  must  be  made, 
.•mil  Cromwell  continued  to  hold  a  place  as  gen- 
eral. Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  now  became  the 
superior  officer,  and  "to  him  it  is  clear"  thai 
Oliver  ••cannot    be  dispensed   with."      Fairfax 


WARRIOR.  91 

and  his  officers  petition  Parliament  that  Oliver 
be  retained,  and  the  Commons,  "  somewhat  more 
readily  than  the  Lords,  continued  by  installments 
of  forty  days,  then  of  three  months,  his  services 
in  the  army,  and  at  length  grew  to  regard  him 
as  a  constant  element  there."  "To  Cromwell 
himself  there  was  no  overpowering  felicity  in 
getting  out  to  be  shot  at,  except  where  wanted  ; 
he  very  probably,  as  Sprigge  intimates,  did  let 
the  matter  in  silence  take  its  own  course."  To 
the  present  writer,  no  part  of  Cromwell's  public 
life,  so  far  as  his  pure  and  lofty  character  is  in- 
volved, is  more  significant  than  that  which  is  now 
before  us.  It  was  the  highest  kind  of  patriotism 
which  led  him  to  impeach  Manchester,  and  to 
favor  the  expulsion  from  the  army  of  all  officers 
who  were  members  of  the  Parliament.  It  was 
not  only  a  dangerous  thing,  which  counted  but 
little  with  such  a  man,  but  it  was  a  project  which 
was  not  unlikely  to  retire  him  to  a  private  life. 

The  newspapers  of  the  day,  and  the  letters  in 
"  Cromwelliana,"  indicate  more  than  the  possi- 
bility of  Oliver's  excluding  himself  from  the 
army  and  forever  depriving  himself  of  the  oppor- 
tunity of  becoming  distinguished,  and  of  losing, 
what  loyalists  say  he  from  the  first  was  aiming 
after,  his  own  elevation  to  supreme  power. 


92  WARRIOR. 

There  is  not  space  in  this  little  book  for  an 
exposition  of  the  famous  "  Self  Denying  Ordi- 
nance;" but  we  quote  from  "  Mercurius  Brit- 
annicus  "  and  from  Fairfax  in  order  to  show  how 
Fairfax  and  his  officers  felt  in  regard  to  the 
necessity  of  keeping  Oliver  for  the  successful 
prosecution  of  the  war. 

The  "  Mercurius  Britannicus  "  says  :  "It  was 
ordered  that  Cromwell  continue  with  the  army 
three  months,  after  the  fifty  days  assigned  him 
are  expired.  I  cannot  believe  that  any  will  re- 
pine at  so  necessary  an  order."  The  "  Modern 
Intelligence  "  says,  "  It  were  to  be  wished  he 
were  in  the  army."  Another  report  says,  "  The 
House  fell  into  debate  of  that  ever  honored  and 
thrice  valiant  and  religious  Lieut.-Gen.  Cromwell, 
whose  time,  limited  by  both  houses,  is  almost 
expired,  and  thereupon  the  House  of  Commons 
passed  an  ordinance  for  enlarging  and  adding  the 
space  of  four  months  to  continue  his  command 
as  lieutenant-general,  notwithstanding  the  'Self 
Denying  Ordinance,"  and  ordered  to  send  to  the 
Lords  for  their  concurrence."  Probably  a  letter 
Erom  Fairfax  settled  this  matter  and  secured 
Oliverasa  permanent  officer  in  the  army. 

Fairfax  wrote  to  the  Parliament  as  follows: 
"The    general    esteem    and    affection    which    he 


WARRIOR.  93 

hath,  both  with  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  this 
■vhole  army,  his  own  personal  worth  and  ability 
for  the  employment,  his  great  care,  diligence, 
courage  and  faithfulness  in  the  services  you  have 
already  employed  him  in  ...  .  make  us  look 
upon  it  as  the  duty  we  owe  to  you  and  the  pub- 
lic, to  make  it  our  humble  request  and  earnest 
wish  ...  to  appoint  him  unto  this  employ- 
ment." This  letter  is  more  than  a  tribute  to 
Cromwell ;  it  reflects,  at  the  distance  of  more 
than  two  centuries,  a  beautiful  light  on  Sir 
Thomas  Fairfax,  his  officers  and  his  soldiers. 

It  is  the  view  of  Gardiner,  the  historian, 
that  Oliver  "  supported  the  first  Self  Denying 
Ordinance  with  the  real  intention  of  abandoning 
his  position  in  the  army." 

The  next  encounter  which  our  hero  had  with 
the  enemy,  was  on  June  14,  1G45,  at  Naseby. 
He  can  now  fight  under  no  limitations.  Prince 
Rupert  is  again  to  meet  him.  The  king  is 
present  or  near  the  battle  ground.  It  was  the 
last  battle  in  the  field  for  Charles,  and  his  forces 
were  "  shivered  to  atoms."  Two  days  before 
this  conflict,  Cromwell  arrived  from  the  Eastern 
Association  and  was  received  "  amid  shouts  from 
the  whole  army." 

On  the   morning   of  the  conflict    he   had   the 


94  WARRIOR. 

ordering'  of  the  horse.  When  the  battle  began 
Prince  Rupert  "  charged  up  hill  and  carried  all 
before  him,"  and  then  galloped  off  to  plunder. 
Cromwell  on  the  other  wing,  charged  down  hill 
carrying  all  before  him,  and  "did  not  gallop  off 
the  field  to  plunder."  The  prince  returns  from 
his  plundering  episode  to  find  the  king's  infantry 
a  ruin,  and  after  a  useless  effort  his  cavalry  are 
broken  and  flee.  They  left  behind  them  the 
king's  carriage  with  the  famous  cabinet  contain- 
ing letters  which  have  made  some  noise  in  the 
world.  Of  this  Naseby  battle  Cromwell  wrote 
to  the  Parliament,  "  This  is  no  other  but  the 
hand  of  God,  and  to  him  alone  belongs  the 
glory,  wherein  none  are  to  share  with  him." 

No  hope  now  remained  for  the  royalist  army, 
though  a  few  places  were  still  held  for  the  king. 
Before  the  end  of  1645,  there  were  taken  Bristol, 
Winchester,  Basing  House  and  Denington  Castle. 
The  first  civil  war  was  ended. 

We  shall  preserve  the  continuity  of  Cromwell's 
military  history,  passing  for  the  present  most  of 
the  events  of  three  years,  comprised  in  the  inter- 
val betweeD  the  defeat  of  Charles  I.  and  the 
attempt  of  Charles  II.  to  restore  royality.  This 
attempt  was  made  in  1G48.  Both  Wales  and 
Scotland  in  the  summer  of  that   year  made  prep- 


WARRIOR.  95 

arations  for  another  war.  The  king  is  still  living, 
and  negotiations  with  him  are  still  going  on, 
though  three  years  have  passed  since  his  last 
battle.  On  the  announcement  of  the  movement 
in  Wales,  Cromwell  takes  his  army  there  and 
spends  a  little  more  than  two  months,  quells  the 
disturbance,  so  far  as  he  can  within  that  limited 
time,  and  in  July  starts  toward  Scotland  to 
undertake  a  far  more  difficult  enterprise  than  the 
reduction  of  Wales. 

The  Scots  had  voted  an  army  of  forty  thousand 
men  for  the  overthrow  of  Parliament,  and  this 
force,  or  half  of  it,  is  ready  to  invade  England. 
Prince  Charles,  with  such  prospects  of  aid  in 
sight,  takes  passage  with  a  fleet,  anchors  in  Yar- 
mouth Harbor,  and  from  thence  issues  orders 
for  Loudon  to  join  him,  which  orders  Loudon 
disregards.      He  crossed  the  Channel  in  July. 

On  the  twentieth  of  the  following  month, 
Oliver,  at  his  writing-table  in  Warrington,  is 
grivinff  the  Parliament  a  lone;  and  minute  account 
of  Preston  battle.  A  day  of  thanksgiving  is  ap- 
pointed for  the  victory,  and  the  prince  with  his 
fleet  can  sail  back  to  Holland.  The  prisoners 
and  the  slain  after  the  battle  of  Preston  outnum- 
bered the  Parliament  army.  There  were  twenty- 
one  thousand  men  on  the  royal  side ;  Cromwell 


96  WARRIOR. 


had  about  eight  thousand  six  hundred  men,  but 
the  Ironsides  were  among  them. 

After  the  defeat  of  the  Scotch  royalists,  Crom- 
well with  his  army  moves  on  to  Edinburgh, 
where  he  was  well  received  by  Argyle  and  the 
Scots  party,  which  was  not  in  sympathy  with 
royalty. 

The  time  is  now  near  when  the  king  is  to  die  ; 
but  of  this  tragedy  it  is  unnecessary  at  present 
to  say  anything,  except  that  on  the  death  of  his 
father  Prince  Charles  assumed  the  title  of  King. 

We  must  now  follow  Cromwell  to  Ireland  and 
as  briefly  as  possible  dispose  of  the  Irish  war, 
keeping  in  mind  that  the  vindication  of  our  hero, 
and  not  history,  is  the  chief  object  of  the  present 
book.  At  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the  English 
army  at  Dublin,  the  Duke  of  Ormond  h  id  united 
the  various  Irish  parties  and  they  had  invited 
Prince  Charles  to  come  to  their  island  and  be 
crowned  :  while  at  the  same  time  Scotland,  on 
certain  conditions,  is  ready  to  receive  the  prince 
as  its  king.     Charles,  then,  has  the  opportunity, 

SUCh  as  it  is,  to  choose  between  these  two  offers: 
and  whichever  offer  is  accepted,  the  purpose  is  to 
place  the  prince,  if  possible,  on  the  English 
throne.  Here,  then,  are  two  games  to  he  played 
for  the  crown  :    the  first  in   Ireland,  the  second  in 


WARRIOR.  97 

Scotland.      Both  were  played,  and  in  both  the 
prince  was  the  loser. 

It  was  in  August,  1G49,  that  the  English  fleet 
entered  Dublin  Harbor ;  and  before  September 
was  gone  the  Irish  game  was  nearly  decided  —  cer- 
tainly all  hope  for  Charles  from  that  island  was 
extinguished  before  the  Parliament  army  left  it. 

Our  present  interest  relates  exclusively  to 
Cromwell  and  his  cause  in  Ireland.  Banishment 
of  war  prisoners  was  a  custom  for  which  Parlia- 
ment was  responsible,  and  it  is  unfair  that  the 
name  of  one  commander  should  be  branded  with 
infamy  for  a  practice  that  was  a  common  one  in 
his  age,  and  which  continued  into  the  eighteenth 
century.  As  to  the  storming  of  towns,  the  ac- 
counts do  not  agree.  Some  loyalists  acquit  him 
of  guilt  ;  others  have  stained  his  name  by  charg- 
ing him  with  needless  cruelties. 

Cromwell  himself  claims  that  he  did  no  wrons; 
or  injustice  to  any  inhabitant  of  the  island. 
He  claims  this  in  his  "  Declaration  to  the  Irish 
Bishops."  He  claims  it  too  in  a  letter  which  he 
sent  to  the  "  Commander  in  Rosse,''  on  the  seven- 
teenth of  October,  1649.  The  letter  may  be 
read  in  "  Cromwelliana."  lie  wrote,  "  Since  my 
coming  into  Ireland,  I  have  this  witness  for 
myself,  that  I  have  endeavored  to  avoid  effusion 


98  WARRIOR. 

of  blood,  having  been  before  no  place  to  which 
such  terms  have  not  been  sent  as  might  have 
turned  to  the  good  and  preservation  of  those  to 
whom  they  were  offered."  That  Cromwell  be- 
lieved not  only  that  he  was  doing  what  was  right, 
but  that  God  blessed  him  in  his  work,  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  His  private  letters,  written  in  Ire- 
land, prove  this. 

We  quote  from  one  letter  :  "  Only  this  let  me 
say,  which  is  the  best  intelligence  to  friends  who 
are  truly  Christian  ;  the  Lord  is  pleased  still  to 
vouchsafe  us  his  presence,  and  to  prosper  his 
own  work  in  our  hands  ;  which  to  us  is  more 
eminent  because,  truly,  we  are  a  company  of 
poor  weak  worthless  creatures.  Truly  our  work 
is  neither  from  our  own  brains,  nor  from  our 
courage  and  strength  ;  but  we  follow  the  Lord, 
who  goeth  before,  and  gather  what  he  scattereth, 
that  so  all  may  appear  to  be  from  him."  An- 
other tiling  is  worth  recording.  If  Cromwell  had 
possessed  that  unscrupulous,  unprincipled  am- 
bition, which  nearly  all  royalist  writers  have 
attributed  to  him,  he  would  not  have  gone  to  Ire- 
land, lie  would  have  remained  in  London  and 
watched  there  tin'  course  of  events.  There  was 
nothing  for  him  to  gain  in  the  Irish  campaign  : 
there  was  only  duty  to  be  done. 


WARRIOR.  99 

When  the  work  in  Ireland  was  so  far  accom- 
plished that  it  could  be  left  with  safety,  Crom- 
well sailed  for  England,  where  he  arrived  in 
.May,  1650. 

Prince  Charles's  prospects  from  the  Irish  side 
are  now  gone,  but  hope  rises  for  him  in  Scotland. 
He  reached  Edinburgh  about  the  time  of  Oliver's 
arrival  in  London.  He  was  made  king  of  the 
Scots,  and  was  also  proclaimed  king  of  England. 
This  was  mainly  the  work  of  the  Presbyterian 
Calvinistic  party.  The  terms  of  this  kingship 
were :  subscriptions  to  the  rigid  doctrines  of 
the  "  Covenant,"  acknowledgment  of  his  father's 
tyranny,  and  acknowledgment  of  his  mother's 
idolatry.  The  men  of  Marston  Moor,  who  had 
fouoht  for  the  Parliament  in  that  battle,  now 
stand  pledged  to  Charles  as  their  king,  and  are 
willing  to  fight  to  place  this  useless  scion  of 
Scotch  royalty  on  the  English  throne.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  Oliver  has  more  war  work  before  him. 

The  young  prince  did  not  at  all  like  the  terms 
which  were  offered  him  ;  but  he  could  not  evade 
them.  He  is  said  to  have  recoiled  at  the  thought 
of  confessing  his  mother  an  idolatress ;  but  yet, 
that  being  one  of  the  conditions  insisted  on  by 
the  pious  party,  he  signed  the  compact. 

And  now   we  see  an   army   of   praying  men. 


100  WARRIOR. 

controlled  largely  by  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
and  mingled  with  them  a  few  men  not  so  used 
to  prayers  as  oaths ;  and  over  this  army  float 
the  banners  of  the  Stuarts.  It  is  to  meet  at 
Dunbar  another  army  of  praying  men  —  the 
Ironsides.  Now,  if  ever,  with  such  a  gathering 
of  Calvinists,  Presbyterians,  Independents,  and 
royalist  churchmen,  is  the  time  for  that  bright 
star  of  courtesy,  with  which  poetry  decks  war ; 
and  after  the  battle  that  star  did  shine  a  little, 
but  not  before. 

Lord  Fairfax,  who  has  been  for  some  years 
the  nominal  commander  of  the  English  forces, 
though  urged  by  the  Council  of  State  and  by 
Cromwell  to  lead  the  army  against  the  Scots, 
declines  to  do  so,  influenced,  it  is  said,  by 
his  wife  And  now  Cromwell  becomes,  for  the 
first  time,  "  Commander-in-Chief ."  His  title  is 
changed,  but  nothing  more.  lie  has  long  been 
the  supreme  man  in  England. 

It  was  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  June,  1G50,  that 
our  hero  was  made  the  chief  commander  of  the 
army.  Three  days  later  lie  was  on  his  way  to 
the  North.  In  August  his  tents  are  pitched 
within  sight  of  Edinburgh.  For  the  intricate 
movements  aboui  thai  city,  the  letters  which  were 
exchanged  between  the  belligerents,  the  difficult 


WARRIOR.  101 

position  into  which  the  Parliament  army  was 
forced,  we  have  not  space  in  this  work.  The 
reader  must  go  to  Carlyle  if  he  would  have  light 
on  these  matters  ;  and  to  Carlyle  he  must  go,  as 
intimated  before,  if  he  wishes  to  read  the  account 
of  the  Dunbar  battle,  the  most  graphic  piece  of 
war  history,  perhaps,  to  be  found  in  the  English 
language. 

By  the  second  of  September,  failing  to  bring 
the  commander,  David  Lesley,  to  an  engage- 
ment, and  needing  supplies,  Oliver's  army  has 
been  forced  to  take  a  position  at  Dunbar,  fifteen 
miles  from  Edinburgh,  and  a  mile  or  two  from 
the  sea.  The  army  is  inclosed  there  between 
the  heaths  and  mountains.  Some  ships  are  at 
anchor  in  the  bay,  but  they  can  be  of  no  present 
service.  Cromwell's  men  are  dying  fast  from  dis- 
ease. In  these  desperate  circumstances,  like  the 
true,  unselfish  man  that  he  was,  on  the  second  of 
September  he  writes  to  the  governor  of  New- 
castle these  noble  words :  "  Whatever  becomes 
of  us,  it  will  be  well  for  you  to  get  what  forces 
you  can  together,  and  the  South  to  help  you 
what  it  can."  Whatever  becomes  of  us,  let  the 
war  go  on. 

David  Lesley  follows  Cromwell  to  Dunbar, 
and  on  the  evening  before  the  battle  his  soldiers, 


102  WARRIOR. 

descending-  from  a  hill,  were  placed  in  a  position 
which  gave  Oliver  hope.  Lesley  thinks  that 
Oliver  is  lost.  Oliver,  seeing  the  disi^osition 
which  Lesley  is  making  of  his  troops,  believes  that 
he  is  not  lost.  The  Scotch  commander,  who  on 
the  morning  of  the  third  expected  that  Cromwell 
and  his  army  would  be  extinguished,  in  the  after- 
noon of  that  day  was  back  in  Edinburgh,  with 
leisure  for  reflection.  His  force  had  been  about 
twenty  thousand  men ;  Oliver's  about  half  that 
number. 

Cromwell's  letter  to  the  Parliament,  dated  the 
fourth,  reports  two  hundred  colors  taken,  all  the 
artillery,  fifteen  thousand  arms,  near  ten  thousand 
prisoners,  and  about  three  thousand  slain.  He 
writes,  "  I  do  not  believe  we  have  lost  twenty 
men  :  "  and  at  the  time  of  writing  lie  had  not 
heard  of  one  commissioned  officer  lost.  He  fur- 
ther writes,  "  Since  we  came  in  Scotland,  it 
hath  been  our  desire  and  longing  to  have  avoided 
blood  in  this  business."  No  doubt  of  that,  but 
Charles  Stuart  must  be  kept  out  of  England,  if 
it  docs  cosl  some  Calvinistic  and  Presbyterian 
blood  to  do  it.  It  was.  also,  on  the  fourth,  the 
day  after  the  battle,  that  he  wrote  a  touching 
letter  (quoted  elsewhere)  to  his  wife,  telling  her 
that  she  was  "dearer  to  him  than    any  creature." 


WARRIOR.  103 

Soon  after  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  Cromwell 
fixes  his  quarters  at  Edinburgh.  Charles  is  at 
Sterling,  where  it  is  impossible  to  reach  him. 
The  army  which  had  been  destroyed  at  Dunbar 
was  made  up  of  men  whose  death  the  king  is 
said  not  to  have  regretted,  because  they  were 
Presbyterians ;  they  fought  for  him,  many  of 
them  had  died  for  him,  but  they  were  Calvin- 
ists,  who  had  forced  him  to  listen  to  theological 
discussion,  and  at  last  to  accept  their  covenant, 
which  he  hated.  From  Lesley's  army  those 
who,  naturally,  most  sympathized  with  the  king- 
were,  so  far  as  possible,  excluded  ;  but  among 
the  parties  in  Scotland  was  one  which  had  no 
affiliation  whatever  with  the  Presbyterians,  and 
from  that  party  Charles  succeeded  in  creating 
another  army. 

This  new  army  Cromwell  had  no  opportunity 
to  meet.  It  was  impossible  for  him  to  ascend 
the  hill  on  which  the  Castle  of  Sterling  stands. 
The  winter  and  the  spring,  therefore,  passed 
away  without  any  general  battle.  When  sum- 
mer came  the  king  had  his  choice  of  retreating 
to  the  North  with  this  new  army,  where  it  would 
be  next  to  impossible  for  the  Parliament  army  to 
encounter  him,  or  to  venture  into  England. 
Cromwell  placed  his  army,  either  from  necessity 


104 


WARRIOR. 


or  by  design,  in  such  a  position  that  the  way  to 
England  was  open.  Charles  chose  that  way, 
expecting,  doubtless,  that  his  force  would  be 
increased  as  he  advanced  southward,  and  that 
he  would  be  able  not  only  to  secure  a  defensive 
position,  but  also  to  destroy  the  army  of  the 
Parliament.  Except  on  such  a  supposition, 
his  course  must  be  regarded  as  a  wild  and  des- 
perate one.  The  people  of  England  did  not, 
however,  flock  to  his  standard.  One  or  two 
attempts  were  made  to  aid  him,  but  they  failed. 

In  his  march  of  three  hundred  miles  through 
the  heart  of  England  less  than  two  thousand  men 
joined  him. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  the  Puritans  were 
a  minority  of  the  people ;  if  so,  the  royalists 
showed  lack  of  spirit  in  refusing  to  come  to  the 
succor  of  the  king.  Instead  of  being  able,  by 
increasing  his  numbers,  to  make  a  stand  and 
fight  a  battle,  Charles  was  forced  to  march 
southward  to  Worcester.  Cromwell  followed 
him  at  :i  distance;  and  as  lie  advanced  recruits 
came  in  from  all  quarters,  so  that  he  had,  on 
reaching  Worcester,  thirty  thousand  men,  an 
army  superior  in  number  to  any  which  lie  had 
before  commanded  :  and  which,  it  lias  been  re- 
ported, could  he  increased,  if  necessary,  to  over 


SIB    HARRY    VANE. 
(Picture  by  Sir  P<  U  r  Lely,  at  Ruby  Castle.) 


WARRIOR.  105 

one  hundred  thousand  men.  The  indications  are 
that  the  cause  of  the  Parliament  was  more  popu- 
lar, even  outside  the  eastern  counties,  than  that 
of  the  king-. 

The  result  of  the  battle  of  Worcester  might 
easily  have  been  foreseen.  The  position  held  by 
the  royal  army  was,  indeed,  very  strong,  and  it 
required  more  strategic  work  to  overthrow  it  than 
Cromwell  had  yet  undertaken ;  but  it  was  inevi- 
table, situated  as  Charles  was,  that  he  should  be 
beaten.  It  was  but  a  question  of  time.  One 
rather  wonders,  when  the  defeat  of  the  king- 
might  be  made  absolutely  certain  by  the  vast 
army  which  surrounded  the  little  city,  that  Crom- 
well, as  old  writers  tell  us,  "  did  exceedingly  haz- 
zard  himself  riding  up  and  down  in  the  midst  of 
the  fire."  His  reputation  for  courage  was  estab- 
lished, and  yet  he  puts  himself  where  a  bullet 
might  make  an  end  of  those  dark,  ambitious 
schemes,  which  royalists  assure  us  were  then, 
and  even  earlier,  covered  over  and  concealed  by 
his  hypocrisy.  It  was  his  purpose,  in  that  Wor- 
cester battle,  to  do  his  duty  regardless  of  personal 
consequences.  lie  thought  no  more  of  future 
place  and  power  than  the  meanest  soldier  who 
fought  under  him.  He  could,  probably,  have 
gone  from  that  Worcester  battle  to  a  throne,  but 


106  WARRIOR. 

his  sole  object  in  it  was  to  keep  Charles  Stuart 
out  of  England. 

The  battle  was  fought  on  the  third  of  Septem- 
ber, 1651,  one  year  from  the  day  of  Dunbar. 
The  fighting  on  both  sides  was  bravely  done. 
Charles,  says  one  report,  watched  the  first  part 
of  the  engagement  from  the  top  of  the  cathedral ; 
and  then,  at  what  he  thought  an  opportune  mo- 
ment, descended  to  join  in  it.  But  what  could 
he  do  against  Cromwell  and  the  Ironsides? 
Nothing.  His  Sacred  Majesty  can  only  escape  — 
flee  to  the  oak-tree  for  a  hiding  place,  and,  finally, 
to  the  Continent ;  but  "  fourteen  thousand  other 
men,  sacred  too,  after  a  sort,  though  not  Sacred 
Majesties,  did  not  escape ;  one  could  weep  for 
such  a  death,  for  brave  men,  in  such  a  cause." 
Tli is  was  the  last  of  Cromwell's  battles  ;  he  is 
soon  to  begin  another  kind  of  warfare. 

If  in  this  country,  as  in  France,  it  were  the 
custom  to  recognize,  by  public  monuments,  heroes 
who  in  their  day  were  misrepresented  or  neg- 
lected, Oliver  Cromwell,  long  since,  would  have 
stood  on  many  of  <>ur  public  squares  to  represent 
a  warrior  who  fought  only  for  duty,  and  to  secure 
for  Bnglishmen,  and  for  the  colonists  of  New 
England,  the  blessings  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHir. 

Oliver  was  a  member  of  the  Parliament  of 
1G28.  He  was  now  twenty-nine  years  old. 
and  represented  Huntingdon,  his  native  place. 
This  was  the  third  Parliament  of  Charles  I.,  and 
the  first  in  which  Oliver  sat.  It  met  in  March, 
and  continued  its  sessions,  with  one  interruption, 
for  a  year. 

England  was  now  awake  to  the  enormities  of 
the  Government,  and  so  fully  awake  that  the 
Speaker  of  the  House,  who  was  ordered  by  the 
king  not  to  put  to  vote  a  question  involving  the 
people's  liberties,  was  held  by  force  in  his  chair 
until  the  vote  could  be  taken.  The  vote  was 
passed  by  acclamation,  the  king's  usher  standing 
meanwhile  outside  the  door  of  the  House.  The 
men    responsible    for   this    proceeding-   paid    the 


108  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

penalty  of  it  by  imprisonment ;  it  would  hardly 
be  unjust  to  say  that  one  of  them,  Sir  John  Eliot, 
for  his  share  in  it,  was  murdered  in  the  Tower 
by  Charles  I. 

Oliver,  a  young  farmer  fresh  from  the  countr}7, 
looked,  we  may  suppose,  with  some  surprise  on 
this  scene.  It  was  something"  new  in  English 
history.  In  the  time  of  Henry  VIIL,  or  in 
Elizabeth's  time  it  would  not  have  been  possible 
for  subjects,  in  that  way,  to  insult  anointed  maj- 
esty. But  it  was  done  in  Charles's  Parliament, 
and  done,  so  far  as  we  know,  without  help  from 
Oliver.  The  scene  was  a  part  of  his  education. 
He  saw  the  king,  not  at  bay,  but  near  it, "  strug- 
gling much  to  be  composed,  but  yet  writhing  with 
royal  rage." 

Just  before  the  session  closed,  and  near  the  end 
of  its  year,  the  member  for  Huntingdon  rose  to 
his  feet  and  said  that  his  old  schoolmaster,  Dr. 
Beard,  had  told  him  that  Dr.  Alabaster  "had 
preached  flat  popery  at  Saint  Paul's  Cross." 
It  certainly  was  not  much  of  a  speech  which  the 
new  member  made:  and  it  may  as  well  be  re- 
marked here,  as  elsewhere,  that  Oliver,  unlike 
mosi  men  who  have  ability,  was  not  fond  «»i  mak- 
ing speeches.  Later  on,  after  the  wars,  he  was 
able  to  make  very  long  speeches,  but   he  never 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  109 

liked  the  business,  and  he  always  spoke  extem- 
poraneously ;  further,  he  never  took  the  least 
pains  to  have  what  writers  took  down  corrected 
and  preserved.  A  great  man  more  oblivious  to 
literary  reputation  has  never  lived ;  yet  he  was 
a  strong  writer.  Some  of  his  war  letters,  which 
he  felt  it  his  duty  to  write  to  the  Parliament,  are 
very  ably  written. 

The  episode  of  Denzil  Holies,  John  Selden, 
Sir  John  Eliot  and  others,  made  an  end  of  the 
famous  Parliament  of  1G28,  which  sat  till  March, 
1629,  and  then  Oliver  went  back  to  his  farming. 

A 1  tout  eleven  years  later,  the  king  having  ruled 
alone,  or  with  Wentworth's  and  Laud's  assistance, 
in  the  interval,  Oliver  is  sent  by  the  town  of 
Cambridge  to  the  Parliament  of  April  13,  1640. 
That  Parliament  continued  for  only  three  weeks. 

His  Majesty  has  on  his  hands  what  has  been 
called  the  "  Bishop's  War,"  a  war  to  force  sur- 
plices and  other  ecclesiastical  appendages  on  the 
Scots.  Failing  to  get  money  from  the  Parlia- 
ment for  this  purpose,  His  Majesty  dismissed  the 
members  and  decided  to  raise  the  needed  funds 
by  "  forced  loans,  or  how  he  could."  The  Scots, 
under  these  circumstances,  conclude  not  to  wait 
for  the  king's  army  to  enter  Scotland,  but  to 
enter  England  with  their  army. 


110  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

The  two  armies  meet  near  Newcastle ;  the 
English  army,  seemingly  not  so  much  interested 
in  the  Episcopal  mission  as  the  king,  shows  but 
little  inclination  to  fight,  does  a  little  fighting 
and  marches  southward  to  York.  The  Scots 
then  take  possession  of  the  north  of  England 
and  hold  it  for  about  a  year.  The  Puritans 
looked  on  them  as  their  saviors.  Ballad  singers 
in  the  streets  of  London  sang  their  praises.  The 
king  and  Laud  lament  to  find  the  Scots  so  indif- 
ferent  to  religion. 

Again  a  Parliament  is  summoned  ;  the  most 
famous,  the  most  infamous,  of  all  the  Parliaments 
in  the  records  of  English  history.  It  met  ou  the 
third  of  November,  1640.  To  this  Long  Parlia- 
ment Oliver  is  sent  to  represent  again  the  town 
of  Cambridge  ;  and  he  continues  a  member  of  it 
while  serving  in  the  army,  and  up  to  the  hour 
when  lie  dissolved  it,  twelve  years  later,  on  the 
morning  of  April  20,  1053. 

For  more  than  twelve  years,  doing  good  work 
and  bad  work, and  toward  the  end  only  bad  work, 
it  sat  until  compelled  to  sit  no  longer.  Hut  the 
good  which  it  accomplished  far  exceeded  the  evil; 
to  it  and  to  what  grew  out  of  it,  England  is  in- 
debted, in  our  day,  to  tlie  gracious  speeches 
which  are  made  by  the  Queen  to  her  Parliaments. 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  Ill 

Prerogative  unlimited  was  (loomed  after  1640,  as 
Charles  and  his  brother  James  learned  to  their 
disappointment  and  humiliation. 

In  the  Parliament  of  1640,  or  rather  in  the 
early  years  of  it,  Cromwell  was  a  silent  member; 
but  he  was  on  many  committees,  and  on  one  com- 
mittee to  which  it  is  necessary  to  refer.  He  was 
on  the  committee  appointed  to  look  into  the  cases 
of  the  victims  of  tryanny. 

The  most  delicate  and  unpleasant  part  of  the 
present  writer's  task  is  that  which  compels  him 
to  refer  to  his  hero's  opposition  to  the  Episcopal 
Church.  Archbishop  Laud  was  in  the  Tower. 
He  was  impeached  by  the  Commons  soon  after 
the  meeting  of  the  Parliament.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear that  Cromwell  took  any  part  in  the  discus- 
sions which  terminated  so  fatally  for  the  head  of 
the  Church.  He,  certainly,  was  no  more  respon- 
sible for  the  needlessly  cruel  sentence  than  the 
members,  a  majority  of  the  House,  who  voted  for 
it ;  but  he  was,  to  a  great  degree,  responsible  for 
the  temporary  suspension  of  the  kind  of  Episcopacy 
which  Laud  and  the  Star  Chamber  had  enforced. 
Lenient  in  after  life,  he  was  not  inclined  to  be 
so  in  1641. 

Perhaps  the  reader  will  find  some  excuse  for 
him,  if   all  the   accessible  facts   are   considered. 


112  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

Trained  as  he  had  been  in  childhood,  baptized 
himself,  and  having  his  children  baptized,  at 
Episcopal  fonts ;  inclined,  both  from  taste  and 
from  principle,  to  a  simple  form  of  worship ; 
irritated,  it  is  probable,  by  changes  and  innova- 
tions in  the  parish  of  Huntingdon  of  which  Laud 
was  made  archdeacon,  while  he  [Oliver]  was  yet 
a  boy ;  inclined  to  freedom  of  conscience  in 
matters  of  religion,  it  is  hardly  to  be  wondered 
at  that  he  deviated  from  a  right  course  touching 
the  Church,  and  especially  after  his  investigations 
as  a  member  of  the  Parliament  committee  had 
shown  that  Pry nne  and  Dr.  Bastwick  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Burton  had  had  their  ears  cropped, 
and  their  cheeks  stamped  with  hot  irons,  and 
had  been  put  into  pillories,  in  Old  Palace  Yard, 
in  sight  of  all  who  chose  to  see  them,  because 
they  did  not  like  Laud's  system  or  his  surplices. 
"It  is  too  hot  to  last,"  said  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bur- 
ton, as  he  was  carried  fainting  to  his  house. 

In  addition  to  these  matters  you  must  recall 
what  we  may  designate  as  Oliver's  general  ecclesi- 
astical  education  ;  remember  that  he  had  been 
taught  in  his  earlier  years  to  hate  papacy,  and  in 
later  years  to  consider  prelacy  but  another  name 
for  papacy,  which  he  might  naturally  do  when 
the  archbishop  soon  alter  consecration  was  offered 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  113 

a  cardinal's  hat  by  the  Pope  of  Rome.  It  is  true 
that  Laud  could  not  accept  the  offered  cardinal- 
ship,  but  that  he  was  a  man  to  whom  it  could  be 
offered  was  significant. 

And  what  was  Oliver's  ecclesiastical  education 
in  his  earlier  life  ?  To  answer  this  question 
some  things  referred  to  in  another  chapter,  must 
be  repeated.  It  is  not  improbable  that  those 
who  had  lived  in  Mary's  time  had  told  him  of 
Latimer  and  Ridley  and  Cranmer  burned  in  the 
streets  of  Oxford  ;  if  not,  he  knew  well  enough 
the  awful  history  of  Mary's  reign.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  he  had  heard  from  eye-witnesses  of 
the  scene  in  the  great  square  of  Brussels,  in 
15G8,  when  Horn  and  Egmont,  champions  of  the 
Protestants,  in  sight  of  Spanish  soldiers  had 
their  heads  struck  off  by  order  of  Alva's  bloody 
council ;  if  not,  he  had  often  read  of  the  vast 
destruction  of  human  lives  in  the  Netherlands, 
which  was  going  on  a  few  years  before  he  was 
born. 

The  Armada,  composed  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  vessels,  which,  with  Parma's  Ant- 
werp fleet,  it  was  hoped  would  land  forty  thou- 
sand men  on  the  coasts  of  England  only  eleven 
years  before  his  birth,  had  been  sent  by  Philip 
of  Spain  to  convert  Episcopalians,  then  about 
8 


114  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

half  the  population  of  the  country,  into  Roman 
Catholics  - —  to  convert  them,  if  possible,  by  the 
sledge-hammer  and  fire  processes  which  Alva  had 
found  ineffective  twenty  years  before ;  which 
had  proved  a  failure  after  a  hundred  thousand 
lives  had  been  sacrificed,  and  an  almost  equal 
number  driven  to  other  lands. 

The  Gunpowder  Plot,  for  blowing  up  whoever 
might  happen  to  be  in  the  Parliament  House  on 
the  opening  day  —  king,  lords,  churchmen  and 
Puritans  —  was  discovered  on  the  eve  of  its  execu- 
tion, in  November,  1605.  Oliver,  then  six  years 
old,  would  keep  that  story,  often  told  at  his 
father's  fireside,  in  memory,  and  it  would  be  sure 
to  leave  its  mark  on  his  character.  Then  came 
the  cruel  death  of  Henry,  by  Jesuits  in  Paris, 
and  the  commencement  of  the  Protestant  and 
Catholic  thirty  years'  war. 

In  forming  an  opinion  of  Cromwell,  so  far  as 
regards  prelacy  that  came  near  to  papacy,  all 
these  things  should  be  remembered  ;  and  it  should 
also  be  remembered  that  toleration  was  a  blessing 
yet  to  be  discovered  in  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Cromwell,  in  1G41,  was  not 
tolerant.  No  king  in  Europe  at  that  time  was 
tolerant.  When  Protector  he  was  probably  the 
most   tolerant  ruler   in   the  world,      lie  did  not 


PARLIAMENT   AND    KINGSHIP.  115 

then  interfere  with  Episcopalians  or  with  Ana- 
baptists so  long  as  they  kept  to  their  legitimate 
work,  and  made  no  attempt  to  overthrow  the 
Government.  It  was  not  the  Church,  but  the 
minister  who  connected  himself  with  politics  and 
with  the  schemes  of  Charles,  that  he  opposed. 

Thurloe,  in  his  "State  Papers,"  has  a  letter  to  the 
States  General,  written  by  Beverning  soon  after 
the  Protectorate  began,  in  which  it  is  stated  that 
the  Lord  Protector  "  doth  take  a  great  deal  of 
pains,  and  hath  already  spent  much  time  about 
the  affairs  of  the  Church  of  England,  to  bring 
the  same,  by  some  toleration  .  .  .  into  a 
peaceable  condition  to  the  content  of  all  differ- 
ing parties,  and  that  the  business  is  so  far  ad- 
vanced that  a  meeting  is,  upon  certain  conditions 
agreed  on,  not  under  the  name  of  a  synod,  but 
of  a  loving  and  Christian-like  reception,  where 
every  one  may  propound  for  a  mutual  toleration. 
It  is  also  firmly  agreed  on,  that,  to  that  end,  the 
Bishops  and  Anabaptists  shall  be  admitted  into 
it,  as  well  as  the  Independents  and  Presbyterians  ; 
but  with  this  proviso,  that  they  shall  not  dispute 
one  another's    principia    but    labor  to   agree   in 


union." 


The  only  important  object  had  in  view  in  the 
preparation  of  this  book,  was  the  vindication  of 


116  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

Cromwell ;  to  show  that  he  was  a  true  man  all 
through  his  life,  honest  in  all  his  private  and 
public  acts.  The  stains  which  the  writer  wished 
to  obliterate,  or  at  least  in  part  to  remove,  were 
connected  with  his  opposition  to  the  Church  and 
his  part  in  the  king's  death.  The  reader  must 
judge  whether  or  not  he  is  vindicated  touching 
the  Church  ;  he  must  certainly  see  that  the  provo- 
cation to  put  the  Church  out  of  the  control  of 
the  Star  Chamber  Court  was  great  enough  to  en- 
list the  service  of  a  pious  and  honorable  man, 
and  must  also  see  that  it  was  inevitable  that 
Cromwell,  with  his  education,  should  believe 
that  a  religious  organization  could  be  established 
better  than  that  which  the  king  and  his  bishops 
had  controlled.  Surely  it  is  not  difficult  to  attri- 
bute to  him  honest  intentions,  however  much  one 
may  criticise  his  policy. 

Three  years  passed  between  the  time  of 
Charles's  defeat  and  his  death,  years  of  infinite 
confusion.  The  king  flew  from  Oxford  to  the 
Scots.  The  Scots  offer  to  tight  for  him  if  he 
will  accept  their  covenant  and  sanction  the  Pres- 
byterian worship.  English  Presbyterians  will 
also   join  the  Scots.     The  king  refuses  tin1  offer. 

He  hopes  to  get  the  Independents,  of  whom 
Cromwell    was    the    chief,   and    the    Presbyterians 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  117 

to  fighting  among  themselves ;  hopes  to  extir- 
pate in  this  way  the  two  great  parties.  Charles 
is  still  revered  by  all  parties,  and  all  would  be 
glad  to  see  him  on  the  throne  again.  Oliver,  as 
will  soon  appear,  was  most  desirous  to  have  him 
restored.  01"  the  fate  which  awaited  him  no  one 
thought  or  dreamed. 

The  Scots,  a  rather  singular  sort  of  people  in 
those  days,  and  much  divided,  failing  to  get  the 
king  to  accept  their  form  of  religion,  held  Charles 
and  finally  virtually  sold  him  to  the  Parliament, 
for  four  hundred  thousand  pounds.  Charles  goes 
back  to  England  a  prisoner,  under  escort  of  par- 
liamentary commissioners.  After  a  time  the  In- 
dependent party,  which  was  in  the  main  the  army 
party,  stole  the  king  away  from  the  Parliament 
or  Presbyterian  party,  and  the  excuse  for  this 
act  was,  that  the  Presbyterians  were  likely  to 
restore  him  without  just  and  needed  limitations. 

These  things  were  going  on  in  the  year  1G4G. 
In  December  of  that  year,  Londoners  sent  up  a 
petition  to  the  Parliament  asking  that  His  Majesty 
may  again  be  king.  In  the  following  February, 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  who  was  still  the  nominal 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  went  northward 
to  meet  Charles,  kissed  his  hand  and  then  con- 
ducted him  to  Holrnby.     The  limits  of  our  book 


118  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

confine  us  to  the  minimum  of  history  ;  only  space 
is  taken  to  give  so  much  as  will  serve  to  make 
clear  Oliver's  position.  He  is  rather  an  obscure 
figure  during  a  greater  part  of  the  three  years 
from  1646  to  1649.  "  The  quarrel  between  city 
and  army,  .  .  .  the  split  of  Parliament  into 
two  clearly  hostile  parties  of  Presbyterian  and 
Independents,  the  deadly  wrestle  of  these  two 
parties,  with  victory  to  the  latter,  all  this  trans- 
acts itself  .  .  .  without  autografic  note,  or 
indisputable  authentic  utterances  of  Oliver's,  to 
elucidate  it  for  us."  For  a  long  time,  so  far  as 
we  can  see,  he  simply  watches  from  his  place  in 
the  army,  or  in  the  Parliament,  the  course  of 
events. 

On  June  2,  1647,  Cornet  Joyce,  with  five 
hundred  troopers,  appears  at  Ilolmby  house  "  to 
the  horror  and  despair  of  the  Parliament  Com- 
missioners in  attendance  there,  but  clearly  to  the 
satisfaction  of  His  Majesty  ;"  and  with  Cornet 
Joyce  His  Majesty  rides  off  to  Hinchinbrook, 
where  Colonel  Montague,  now  its  owner,  receives 
him.  It  was  that  same  house  in  which,  forty-four 
years  before,  Sir  Oliver  Cromwell  had  enter- 
tained Kin-  James,  and  where  little  Oliver,  Sir 
Oliver's  godchild,  and  little  Charles, now  the  dis- 
crowned king,  had  probably  played  together. 


PARLIAMENT   AND    KINGSHIP.  119 

Col.  Whalley,  who  in  after  years  was  a  pro- 
tected regicide  here  in  New  England,  was  sent 
by  Gen.  Fairfax  with  a  strong  force  to  release 
the  king  and  take  him  back  to  Holmby.  Charles 
refuses  the  proffered  aid;  prefers  to  be  a  prisoner 
under  the  army  rather  than  under  the  Parliament. 
He  is  taken  to  Hampton  Court  and  there,  though 
under  surveillance,  he  is  treated  with  respect,  and 
with  him  negotiations  are  carried  on  with  a  view 
to  his  restoration. 

Cromwell,  month  after  month,  visits  him,  estab- 
lishes seemingly  agreeable  relations  with  him,  and 
does  what  he  can  to  persuade  the  king,  whom  he 
discovers  to  be  an  able  man,  to  accept  a  modified 
Government.  It  soon,  however,  becomes  appar- 
ent that  it  was  not  the  purpose  of  Charles  to  be 
placed  on  the  throne  by  Cromwell  and  the  army. 
He  has  other  plans  concealed,  he  hopes,  under  his 
chicanery.  While  Oliver  is  visiting  him,  with 
danger  to  himself,  for  a  part  of  the  army  begins 
to  suspect  their  great  leader  of  treachery,  the 
king  is  playing  a  separate  game  of  his  own  ;  a 
game  which,  if  successful,  would  be  fatal  to  the 
Puritans,  and  almost  certain  death  to  Oliver. 

In  November,  1G47,  he  manages  to  escape 
from  Hampton  Court  and  get  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight ;  but  there,  where  he  hoped  to  be  received 


120  PARLIAMENT    AND   KINGSHIP. 

by  the  governor  as  a  guest  and  to  be  protected, 
lie  finds  himself  again  a  prisoner. 

When  at  Hampton  Court  "  a  plan  of  political 
reform,"  says  Green  in  his  "  History  of  the  English 
People,"  was  presented  to  the  king.  "  Relief  and 
worship  were  to  be  free  to  all."  "  Acts  enforc- 
ing the  use  of  the  Prayer  Book,  or  attendance 
at  church,  or  the  enforcement  of  the  covenant 
were  to  be  repealed.  Even  Catholics  were  to  be 
freed  from  the  bondage  of  compulsory  worship." 
"  Cromwell  .  .  .  clung  to  the  hope  of  ac- 
commodation with  a  passionate  tenacity.  His 
mind,  conservative  by  tradition,  and  above  all 
practical  in  temper,  saw  the  political  difficulties 
which  would  follow  on  the  abolition  of  monarchy, 
and  in  spite  of  the  king's  evasions,  he  persisted 
in  negotiating  with  him ;  but  Cromwell  stood 
almost  alone." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  these  efforts  for 
the  king's  restoration  were  made  after  seven 
years  of  war ;  and  certainly,  if  G  reen  is  correct 
in  his  statements,  it  would  seem  that  the  charges 
made  so  often  against  Cromwell,  as  ambitious  for 
the  throne,  are  wholly  without  foundation.  Proofs 
thai  his  ambition  did  not  look  in  that  direction, 
but  only  to  a  good  government  for  England,  will 
multiply  as  we  go  on. 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  121 

Cromwell  risking  his  life  for  the  king,  is  a 
part  of  his  history  which  royalist  writers  connect 
with  duplicity.  Hume,  who  can  perhaps  be  be- 
lieved in  such  a  matter,  says  that  during  the 
negotiations  at  Hampton  Court  Charles  offered 
the  garter  —  the  garter  to  Oliver  ;  the  old  brand- 
ing-iron of  St.  Ives,  with  O.  C.  on  it,  at  the 
moment  of  this  offer,  would  have  pleased  Oliver 
better  than  all  the  garters  which  the  king  had 
at  his  disposal.  Knightship,  the  future  of  his 
country  being  in  the  balance,  was  but  a  small 
thing  to  the  man  who,  at  a  later  time,  could  say 
that  the  crown  was  but  "  a  feather  in  one's  cap." 

England  is  now  in  danger.  All  that  has  been 
done  by  Cromwell  and  the  Puritans  may  be  lost. 
The  men  who  went  into  the  struggle  in  1640  in 
good  faith,  with  half  the  country  to  supj)ort  them, 
are  likely  to  find  themselves  condemned  to  die. 
Hamilton,  and  men  not  of  the  Presbyterian  type, 
have  now  got  control  of  the  Scotch  Parliament ; 
and  an  army,  not  of  the  praying  kind  like  that 
of  Dunbar,  is  threatened.  Charles,  at  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  to  give  further  evidence  of  his  perfidy, 
signs  a  treaty  with  the  Scots  for  an  invasion  of 
the  kingdom  ;  and  a  new  war,  as  parties  then 
stood,  would  leave  but  little  hope.  Wales,  too, 
with  its    Presbyterian  colonels,  is  declaring    for 


122  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHir. 

royalisin  ;  the  country  is  in  danger.  What,  then, 
shall  Cromwell  and  his  officers  do  under  such 
circumstances  ?  Shall  they  die,  or  shall  they  kill 
the  king  ?  That  is  the  one  personal  question  for 
them  to  decide  in  the  year  1648.  They,  natu- 
rally, prefer  not  to  die  ;  prefer  that  the  king 
should  die. 

There  were,  of  course,  great  interests  pertain- 
ing to  the  nation  to  be  considered ;  but  apart 
from  all  matters  of  national  welfare,  reducing 
the  case  to  a  personal  one,  it  is  difficult  to 
see  wherein  the  regicides  are  worthy  of  blame. 
Charles  had  played  his  desperate  diplomatic  game 
until  the  patience  of  Cromwell  and  his  fellow 
Puritans  was  exhausted  ;  played  it  until  there 
was  a  certainty  either  that  the  general  of  the 
army  and  other  leaders  in  the  war  must  lose  all 
that  they  had  fought  for,  and  then  give  up  their 
lives,  or  that  the  king  must  pay  the  penalty  for 
his  crimes.  There  was  no  other  alternative  in 
sight  when  the  beginning  of  the  year  1G49 
approached. 

Long  before  the  time  of  which  we  are  writing, 
in  the  early  part  of  1648,  there  was  held  in 
Windsor  Castle  a  prayer  meeting  such  as  never 
before  and  never  since  have  those  old  walls  echoed 
to.     It  was  a   prayer  meeting  of  army  officers. 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSIIir.  123 

It  was  continued  into  the  third  day.  The 
"  strongest  heads  and  the  strongest  hearts  "  of 
England  were  in  it.  Strange  as  such  a  thing 
seems  in  this  age,  Lieut.-Gen.  Cromwell  was 
there,  and  did  "  press  very  earnestly,"  says 
one  who  was  at  the  meeting,  "  on  all  there  pres- 
ent, to  a  thorough  consideration  of  our  actions 
and  of  our  ways,  particularly,  as  private  Chris- 
tians, to  see  if  any  iniquity  could  be  found  in 
them,  and  what  it  was,  that,  if  possible,  we  might 
find  it  out,"  etc.  At  the  close  of  the  meeting 
this  decision  was  arrived  at :  "  That  it  was  our 
duty,  if  ever  the  Lord  brought  us  back  again  in 
peace,  to  call  Charles  Stuart,  that  man  of  blood, 
to  an  account  for  the  blood  he  had  shed,  and  the 
mischief  he  had  done  to  his  utmost  against  the 
Lord's  cause  and  people  in  these  poor  nations." 

The  polity  of  the  Puritans  was,  possibly,  defect- 
ive. It  might  have  been  more  judicious  to  re- 
tain the  king  a  prisoner ;  but  if  ever  capital 
punishment  is  just  and  right  it  was  surely  so 
in  this  case.  The  judges  had  to  deal  with  a 
man  who,  after  seventeen  years  of  misrule,  had 
committed  a  most  brutal,  savage-like  act,  by 
attacking  the  Parliament  with  hundreds  of  armed 
men  at  his  back,  and  demanding  the  surrender  of 
members  to  him,  to  be  dealt  with,  doubtless,  as 


124  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

Eliot  had  been  dealt  with ;  who  then,  a  few  days 
after  this  atrocity,  fled  from  the  members  of  the 
Commons  who  had  been  sent  to  St.  Stephen's  to 
make  laws  for  their  country  ;  who  then,  for  the 
sake  of  prerogative  and  that  only,  had  kept  up  a 
seven  years'  war  ;  who,  as  ruler,  was  incapable  of 
telling  the  truth,  or  of  keeping  a  treaty,  or  of 
governing  justly  ;  a  man,  in  a  word,  who  had  put 
himself  outside  the  pale  of  mercy. 

Cromwell,  then,  was  a  regicide.  His  name 
stands  the  third  on  the  list  of  the  fif  t}"-nine  signers 
of  Charles's  death  warrant.  Charles  returns  to 
Whitehall  to  die.  Royalism  all  over  Europe 
utters  a  shriek,  "  happily,  at  length,  grown  very 
faint  in  our  day."  The  Puritans  in  England, 
and  the  Puritans  in  the  colonies  of  New  England, 
litter  no  shriek,  but  are,  on  the  contrary,  grateful 
to  the  daring  men  who  have  placed  a  king,  whom 
they  had  known  only  as  a  despot,  where  he  could 
no  longer  do  them  harm.  Milton  sang  the  praises 
of  Cromwell,  "  the  chief  of  men." 

Not  long  after  the  death  of  Charles,  in  May, 
1G49,  it  was  declared,  after  much  debating  in  the 
Parliament,  and  consultations  in  committees,  that 
England  should  be  u  Commonwealth. 

Four  years  and  more  are  now  to  pass  before 
Oliver  is   named    Protector.      During  a   part  of 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  125 

this  time  he  is  occupied  in  carrying  on  the  war  in 
Ireland,  and  the  Scotch  war  which  terminated  at 
Worcester,  in  September,  1651. 

The  interval  between  his  last  battle  and  the 
Protectorate  included  more  than  two  years.  At 
the  beginning  of  this  period  it  was  impossible, 
after  his  victories  in  both  the  civil  wars,  also  in 
the  campaign  in  Ireland,  and  in  the  war  with 
Scotland,  that  he  should  fail  of  recognition  as  the 
strongest,  ablest  man  among  Englishmen  ;  and, 
though  he  had  been  but  little  in  the  Parliament 
House,  and  had  scarcely  ever  spoken  there,  it 
must  also  have  been  discovered  that  he  had  in 
him  the  elements  of  a  statesman. 

His  return  to  London  was  a  triumph  rarely 
accorded  to  a  conqueror.  He  was  met  by  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Parliament  at  a  distance  from  the 
city.  Whitelocke,  the  eminent  lawyer,  was  one 
of  those  who  went  out  to  meet  him  with  congratu- 
lations. On  entering  the  streets  of  London  he 
is  met  by  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  by  the  Council 
of  State,  by  sheriffs,  mayors,  and  a  vast  multitude  : 
but  he  has  the  good  sense  to  rightly  estimate 
the  worth  of  such  a  crowd,  and  is  said  to  have  re- 
marked that  more  people  would  come  out  to  see 
him  hung.  He  is  silent,  for  the  most  part,  about 
himself,   while  he  praises  the  soldiers  who  have 


126  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

fought  with  him.  One  who  looked  on  him  in 
this  scene,  and  who  knew  him  well,  is  reported  to 
have  said,  "  This  man  will  he  king  of  England 
yet."  The  great  conqueror  is  voted,  for  a  home, 
Cardinal  Woolsey's  Hampton  Court  Palace,  the 
residence  of  sovereigns  from  the  time  of  Henry 
VIII.  "  This  was  the  moment,"  says  Fred- 
erick Harrison,  "  when  a  Bonaparte  would  have 
seized  the  vacant  throne;  "  hut  "he  betook  him- 
self to  work  as  a  simple  member  of  the  Council." 

Ten  years  and  more  have  now  gone  since  as 
plain  Mr.  Cromwell  he  had  offered  to  loan  a 
part  of  his  property  for  the  service  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  to  undertake  the  dangerous 
business  of  recruiting  soldiers  in  the  town  of 
Cambridge;  and  now,  when  his  clear  sight,  his 
valor  and  his  character  have  placed  him  at  the 
head  of  the  nation,  and  the  Parliament  had 
almost  marked  him  for  a  supreme  ruler,  he  goes 
to  work  as  a  common  citizen,  a  committee  mem- 
ber, hoping  to  aid  in  settling  the  Government ; 
an  exceptional  man  presenting  a  noble  example. 

It  has  not  yet  become  popular  to  represent 
Cromwell  on  canvas,  but  the  time  will  come 
when  painters  will  abandon,  for  a  while,  the  saints 
of  mediaeval  limes,  and  hang  not  a  few  Crom- 
well historical  pictures  on  the  walls  of  English 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  127 

galleries.  The  frail  beauties  of  Charles's  court, 
who  now  smile  on  admiring  crowds  in  Hampton 
Palace,  will  one  day  divide  with  the  Protector, 
the  Protectress,  with  Elizabeth  Clay  pole  and 
Puritan  chiefs,  the  attention  of  English  and 
American  sightseers  anxious  to  study  the  history 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Between  the  day  of  the  Worcester  battle  and 
the  breaking  up  of  the  Long  Parliament,  the 
records  of  Oliver's  life  are  but  few,  and  there 
are  no  letters  of  that  time  which  throw  new  light 
on  him  ;  but  it  is  well  known  that  he  was  then 
constantly  laboring  for  the  settlement  of  the 
Government.  Mr.  Harrison  has  clearly  explained 
his  position  during  this  period,  and  the  present 
writer  here  avails  himself  of  some  of  the  state- 
ments of  this  author,  rather  than  attempt  to  put 
into  his  own  language  what  has  been  so  lucidly 
set  forth.  He  says  that  Cromwell  did  not  bring 
himself  "  conspicuously  before  the  nation  ;  "  that 
while  "legally  in  control  of  the  whole  military 
forces "  he  "  worked  on  at  the  administrative 
business,"  and  "  worked  without  display,  accept- 
ing the  shadowy  authority  of  the  remnant,  or  fag 
end,  of  the  Long  Parliament ; "  that  he  was 
"  zealous  for  social  order,"  and  "  looked  directly 
for  the  mending  of  practical  wrongs  ;  "  that  the 


128  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

"  twenty-three  thousand  unheard  cases  waiting  in 
chancery  was  a   perpetual  grievance   to   him ; ' 
that    he    "  was    constantly    troubled    about    the 
abuses  of  the  law ;  "  that  he  was  a  man  to  whom 
official  tyranny  never  appealed  in  vain  ;  '     "  that 
he  was  bent  on  a  settlement,"  and  "  showed  such 
a  willingness  to  come  to  terms  with  the  defeated 
party,  and  such  a  real  sympathy  with  their  pro- 
tracted sufferings,  that  the  sterner  spirits  at  once 
accused   him   of    gaining  the    good   will    of    the 
royalists   to   serve  his  own    designs  ; ,:    that    he 
"  saw  plainly  that  the  nation  was  not  prepared 
for  a  definite  republic,  nor  had  he  any  preference 
for  it ;  "    that  he   "  saw  that  without  some  mo- 
narchical element     .     .     .     the  English  scheme 
of   government   and  law   could    scarcely   be   got 
into  work  again  :  *'   that  "  a  person  as  ruler  was 
essential  ;  "  that  he  "  inclined  toward  a  personal 
head  of  the  State,   though  he  shrunk  from  the 
name  of  king;  "   that  soon  after  his  return  from 
Worcester   "  the  question  of  a  new  Parliament 
was  raised     ...     at    his    desire ;  "    that   he 
»  frit  himself  to  be  the  guardian  of  the  interests 
of  all,  even  of   those  whom  he  had  defeated;" 
thai    be  was  "addressed  by  petitions  for  the  re- 
dress    of    grievances    in    the  matter   of   law,    of 
imprisonment,  of  exactions,  of  tithes,  as  to  one 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSIIIP.  129 

into  whose  hands  the  sword  was  put ;  " 
that  lie  came  into  the  position  of  general  moder- 
ator ;  "  that,  while  some  statesmen  inclined  to  a 
restoration  of  one  of  the  Stuart  princes,"  he 
"  objected  to  any  recall  of  the  princes  ;  "  and 
that  he  "desired  a  settlement,  with  himself  in- 
vested with  some  monarchical  power,  though  as 
to  name  or  prerogative  of  king  he  felt,  and  con- 
tinued to  feel,  the  deepest  hesitation  and  doubt." 
It  will  be  noticed  that  allusion  is  made  to  a 
proposition  for  calling  in  one  of  the  Stuart 
princes,  and  that  Cromwell  objected  to  the  pro- 
posal, as  he  naturally  would  do  after  ten  years 
of  effort  to  keep  that  family  from  the  throne. 
It  has  often  struck  the  writer  as  a  strange  thing- 
that  Bulstrode  Whitelocke,  at  the  conference  of 
grandees  at  Speaker  Lenthall's  house,  after  the 
defeat  at  Worcester,  should  have  said,  "There 
may  be  a  day  given  for  the  king's  eldest  son,  or 
for  the  Duke  of  York  to  come  in  to  the  Parlia- 
ment ;  "  and  not  strange,  if  this  was  really  said, 
that  Oliver  should  have  replied,  "That  will  be  a 
business  of  more  than  ordinary  difficulty  ;  "  a 
mild  reply  to  an  offensive  remark.  But  did 
Whitelocke,  at  that  famous  conference,  say  what 
he  reports  himself  to  have  said  ?  We  doubt  it. 
The  account  of  the  conference  did  not  sec  the 


130  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

light  until  after  the  restoration.  It  may  have 
been  changed  years  after  Cromwell  was  dead. 
AVhitelocke  himself  wrote  it.  The  learned  law- 
yer, solid  though  he  be,  has  in  him  "  a  kind  of 
dramaturgic  turn,"  a  "  poetic  f riskiness  "  which 
"  detracts  from  one's  confidence "  in  his  entire 
accuracy  in  this  record. 

The  Parliament,  in  the  more  than  twelve  years 
of  its  session,  has  been  greatly  reduced  in  the 
number  of  its  members.  On  its  fatal  day,  ac- 
cording to  the  highest  estimates,  less  than  one 
hundred  were  present  at  the  meeting  ;  according 
to  some  estimates,  less  than  sixty.  But  great  or 
small,  with  many  members  or  with  few,  it  has 
determined,  without  any  legal  or  moral  right,  to 
perpetuate  itself.  Cromwell  and  others  tried,  in 
every  possible  peaceful  way,  to  induce  the  Parlia- 
ment not  to  perpetuate  itself,  but  to  dissolve 
itself,  and  give  the  country  the  opportunity  for 
a  new  election. 

It  must  be  remembered,  in  this  connection,  that 
Oliver  was  the  soul  of  the  Commonwealth.  It 
was  not  in  St.  Stephen's  Hall,  where  the  debates 
were  going  on  year  after  year,  that  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Commonwealth  were  supported,  but 
at  Naseby,  at  Dunbar  and  at  Worcester. 

There  were  great  statesmen  in  the  Parliament, 


OLIVER  CROMWELL. 
(From  Pldlip  L.  JIak's  copy  of  Robert   Walker's  portrait.) 


PARLIAMENT   AND    KINGSHIP.  131 

but  these  statesmen,  without  Oliver,  would  have 
been  powerless  to  maintain  the  Government.  In 
the  field,  in  battling  against  Charles  I.,  against 
Charles  II.,  against  the  Irish,  against  the  Scots, 
the  commander  of  the  Ironsides  had  done  the 
work  which  was  essential  to  the  very  existence  of 
the  Republic. 

With  a  mental  and  moral  consistency  rarely, 
if  ever,  surpassed  ;  with  a  decision  that  never  for 
a  moment  failed  him,  and  a  vigor  that  was  in- 
flexible ;  with  personal  bravery  equal  to  that  of 
Caesar,  and  devotion  to  his  work  like  Hannibal's  ; 
with  honesty,  piety  and  prayer  to  God  to  bless 
his  labors,  this  man,  in  sickness,  trials,  dangers, 
with  humility  and  self-depreciation,  ascribing  all 
his  successes  to  Providence,  from  the  time  when 
he  took  command  of  the  army  to  the  time  when 
he  entered  St.  Stephen's  to  tell  the  members  to 
be  gone,  was,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  the  only 
support  of  the  Government  that  could  be  trusted 
with  safety.  If  a  figure  that  has  truth  in  it  may 
be  used,  he  was  both  the  corner-stone  and  the 
key-stone  of  the  political  structure  which  had 
been  erected  in  place  of  a  monarchy  over  the 
English  people.  Shall  that  structure  go  to 
pieces,  allowing  Charles  on  the  ruins  of  it  to  build 
up    his   kingdom  ?     This  was  the  question   pre- 


132  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

sented  to  Cromwell  on  the  morning  of  April  20, 
1G53.  To  prevent,  if  possible,  this  catastrophe, 
he  decides  to  break  up  the  "  Pump  "  of  the  Par- 
liament, and  send  the  members  to  their  homes. 

It  is  best  to  fortify  the  position  here  taken, 
which,  it  is  needless  to  say,  is  not  new  or  original, 
by  a  quotation  which  the  writer  was  surprised  to 
find  in  the  eighth  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica.  "  The  Parliament,  that  great  as- 
sembly that  had  molded  the  Commonwealth,  had 
now,  at  the  end  of  twelve  years,  exhausted  its 
vitality,  and  dwindled  into  a  mere  mockery  of 
representative  government.  It  had  become,  in 
faet,  an  oligarchy  which  had  absorbed  to  itself, 
not  merely  the  whole  administration  of  public 
affairs,  but  the  control  of  many  private  interests." 
It  was  their  "only  serious  occupation  to  main- 
tain themselves  in  power  and  defend  themselves 
against  their  enemies." 

It  was  a  daring  act  to  dissolve  even  such  a 
Parliament,  and  especially  so  in  view  of  the  after 
responsibility,  which  must,  by  necessity,  fall  on 
Cromwell.  Whether  or  not  he  had  taken  a 
measure  of  the  consequences  of  the  dissolution, 
or  had  come  to  any  decision  as  to  what  could  be 
the  probable  result  to  himself  personally,  we 
have  no  means  of  knowing.      We  only  know  that 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSIII1'.  133 

duty  compelled  liim  to  the  act  of  dissolving-  the 
Parliament.  On  the  night  before  the  exploit 
many  leading  members  and  many  officers  of  the 
army  were  at  Oliver's  house,  and  when  the  meet- 
ing broke  up  it  was  with  the  understanding  that 
the  shameless  proposition  that  the  members  of 
the  existing  Government  "  were  to  be  de  jure 
members  of  the  new,  and  to  constitute  a  com- 
mittee for  deciding  on  the  admission  of  their 
successors,"  should  at  least  lie  over,  and  that 
another  meeting  should  be  held  the  next  morning. 
The  next  morning  Oliver,  in  his  reception-room, 
was  waiting1  with  a  few  members  for  others  to 
come,  when  a  message  reached  him  that  the 
Parliament  was  hurrying  to  a  vote  on  the  ob- 
noxious bill.  What  a  supreme  moment  for  the 
St.  Ives  farmer !  The  destiny  of  England  is  to 
be  decided.  The  situation  was  not  unlike  that 
in  which  Julius  Caasar  was  placed  before  he  ad- 
vanced from  Ravenna  on  Rome.  Cromwell,  like 
the  Roman,  did  not  hesitate.  He  starts  off  for 
St.  Stephen's  Hall  in  his  plain  clothes,  calling,  as 
he  goes,  on  a  company  of  his  regiment  to  attend 
liim,  and  to  wait  outside  the  House.  He  goes  to 
his  seat,  listens  for  a  while  to  the  debate,  and 
when  the  bill  is  about  to  be  voted  on  he  rises,  as 
though  intending  simply  to  present  his  views  on 


134  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

it.      It  is  soon  discovered  that  he  does  not  confine 
himself    to  the  question.      He  wanders  from  it. 
He  commends  the  House  for  some   things  it  has 
done ;   he  censures  it  for  its  faults  ;  and  at  last 
says,  "  It  is  not  fit  that  you  sit  here  any  longer." 
He  calls  for  twenty  or  thirty  musketeers,  and  the 
work  is  done.     The  scene  in  its  details  we  have 
not  space  to  describe.     It  is  enough  to  say  that 
Oliver  has   now  taken  the  sole  responsibility  of 
destroying  what  remained  of    the  legislature  of 
his  country.     He  has  broken  up  the  most  famous 
Parliament  that  ever  sat  in  England.     His  com- 
ment on  this  act  is  almost  as  remarkable  as  the 
act  itself.      "  We   did   not   hear  a  dog   bark  at 
their  going/'  meaning  that  England  quietly  ac- 
cepted what  had  been  done.      The  judges  of  the 
courts,  the  generals  of  the  army,  the  captains  in 
the  navy  send  in  their  adherence  to  Cromwell, 
and  the  Government  goes  on  with  a  "Constable  " 
at  the  head  of  it. 

On  the  day  following  this  judicious  violence, 
the  news  journal,  "Mercurius  Politicus,"  con- 
tained the  following:  "The  Lord  General  de- 
livered yesterday  in  Parliament  divers  reasons 
wherefore  a  present  period  should  be  put  to  the 
silting  of  this  Parliament,  and  it  was  accordingly 
dune,  the  speaker  and  the  members  all  departing  ; 


PARLIAMENT   AND    KINGSHIP.  135 

the  grounds  of  which  proceedings  will,  it  is  prob- 
able, shortly  be  made  public/'  Such  was  the 
brief,  official  notice  given  to  England,  by  Oliver, 
of  this  world-important  event.  The  brevity  and 
simplicity  of  the  message  are  significant. 

What  next  ?  Chaos  or  a  government  ?  The  old 
Government  is  gone,  it  was  not  worth  saving  ;  it 
would  soon,  probably,  have  brought  a  new  war 
and  ruin  to  the  country,  but,  good  or  bad,  it  no 
longer  exists.  There  is  no  supreme  authority. 
Cromwell's  voice  has  destroyed  all  constitu- 
tional authority,  and  the  responsibility  is  now 
laid  on  him  to  reconstruct,  with  such  help  as  he 
can  get,  a  government  for  the  country.  To  a 
truth-seeking  impartial  observer,  his  efforts  for 
the  next  five  years  must  indicate  a  man,  not  of 
such  ambition  as  has  been  almost  universally 
attributed  to  him,  but  with  an  ambition  limited 
to  the  pure  and  noble  desire  to  secure  for  the 
people  a  good  and  safe  representative  adminis- 
tration. Instead  of  execration,  he  calls  for  our 
admiration  and  our  sympathy. 

Within  a  few  weeks  one  hundred  and  forty 
Puritan  notables,  men  of  approved  fidelity  and 
honesty,  are  summoned  to  act  as  a  Parliament 
in  the  existing  emergency.  This  extraordinary 
assembly  met  on  the  fourth  of  July.      "  The    old 


136  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

and  vulgar  charge  against  them,"  says  the  En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica,  "  as  a  herd  of  mean  and 
contemptible  fanatics,  is  of  a  piece  with  the 
general  run  of  historic  portraiture  of  Cromwell 
himself,  and  has  been  sufficiently  answered  even 
by  writers  who  have  little  sympathy  for  him. 
They  were,  indeed,  a  body  of  most  sincere  and 
earnest  men,  only  too  eager  and  comprehensive  in 
their  efforts  to  accomplish  a  national  reform  ;  but 
they  attempted  too  much."  Of  the  one  hundred 
and  forty  all  save  two  came  on  the  summons, 
and  Oliver  makes  a  speech  to  them  which  Carlyle 
says  is  all  glowing  with  the  splendors  of  genuine 
veracity  and  heroic  depths  and  manfulness,  and 
which  seems  to  express  the  image  of  the  soul  it 
came  from. 

Oliver  was  now  fifty-four  years  old.  Time  had 
begun  to  leave  its  marks  on  him.  Labor,  care, 
sorrow,  have  left  their  imprints  on  his  brow. 
Ambitious,  then,  of  power  and  preferment  ?  Read 
the  speech  and  you  will  dismiss  that  thought; 
read  it  again  and  carefully,  ami  Oliver  will  come 
before  you  a  pitiable  man.  discharging  a  duty  for 
the  sake  of  England  ;  read  it  the  third  time,  and 
your  hatred  will  be  turned  to  love. 

The  "  Little  Parliament,"  so  called,  proved  a 
failure.      It    sat    for    live    months,   attempted  to 


PARLIAMENT   AND   KINGSHIP.  137 

abolish  tithes,  for  one  thing,  and  to  have  the 
Christian  ministry  otherwise  supported  ;  at- 
tempted also  to  abolish  the  Court  of  Chancery, 
in  which  the  twenty-three  thousand  suits  were 
pending,  and  to  contrive  and  establish  a  court  in 
which  contestants  would  not  have  to  wait  twenty 
to  thirty  years  for  a  settlement  of  their  cases. 
These  legislators  of  the  "Little  Parliament" 
were  too  wise,  too  honest,  too  good,  too  advanced 
for  the  England  of  that  age. 

The  Presbyterian  clergy,  snugly  settled  on 
tithes,  and  the  lawyers  of  Temple  Bar,  having  an 
eye  to  the  continuance  of,  at  least,  a  part  of  the 
twenty-three  thousand  cases  in  Chancery,  upset 
Oliver's  first  schemes  for  England's  good.  Do 
you  mean,  asked  the  clergy,  to  deprive  us  of  our 
tithes  ?  Do  you  mean,  asked  the  lawyers,  to  de- 
prive us  of  our  "  learned  wigs,"  and  our  "  lucra- 
tive long-windedness,"  with  your  search  for  "  God's 
law,"  and  "  simple  justice  ?  " 

Poor  Oliver  must  try  again.  Public  selfish 
clamor  puts  an  end,  for  the  time,  to  his  proposed 
reforms,  and  his  Parliament  resigns  its  powers 
into  his  hands.  He  is  in  a  dilemma,  What  his 
emotions  and  griefs  were,  the  reader  can  imagine. 
What  next  ?  Shall  he  become  a  usurper  ?  That 
seems  to  be  the  best  possible   thing.     Usurper, 


138  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

until  he  can  secure  a  settlement.  He  calls  a 
council  of  officers  and  other  persons  of  interest  in 
the  nation,  and  it  is  decided  that  he  is  to  be 
known  as  the  Lord  Protector  of  England,  Ire- 
land and  Scotland,  and  is  to  have  a  council  to 
aid  him  in  his  work.  Usurper  then,  in  one 
sense,  Oliver  has  now  become,  though  he  calls 
himself,  not  much  elated,  a  "  Constable."  Bent, 
as  before  and  always  to  the  very  end  of  life,  on 
securing  a  constitutional  and  stable  government, 
and  seeing  anarchy,  at  this  time,  a  danger,  and 
the  return  of  Charles  Stuart  a  menace,  he  takes 
a  position  unknown  to  the  law  and  to  a  well- 
ordered  community.  It  was  bravely  and  nobly 
done.  "  Perhaps,"  remarks  Carlyle,  "  no  more 
perilous  place  was  ever  deliberately  accepted  by  a 
man.  The  post  of  honor  ?  No  ;  the  post  of  terror, 
and  of  danger,  and  forlorn  hope." 

From  a  time  near  the  beginning  of  the  Protec- 
torate to  the  end  of  it,  plots  were  laid  every  year 
to  take  the  life  of  Cromwell,  and  large  rewards, 
with  honors,  were  offered  to  those  who  should 
succeed  in  the  business;  but  of  those  efforts  and 
their  failure  we  shall  here  say  nothing. 

A  Protectorate  Parliament  of  four  hundred 
members  was  railed  for  September  3,  1654.  At 
its  opening  the  Protector  announced  that  the  end 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  139 

of  the  meeting-  was  "  healing  and  settling."  "  If 
lliis  meeting,"  he  said,  "  prove  not  healing,  what 
shall  we  do  ?  "  Poor  man.  The  speech  was  re- 
ceived with  favor ;  but  the  "  healing "  was  not 
secured.  '  Among  four  hundred  men  there  would 
necessarily  be  some  not  possessing  wisdom,  or 
even  common  sense,  and  these  members  soon  be- 
gan foolishly  to  debate  about  the  form  of  govern- 
ment, with  its  "  single  person."  The  Protector 
appears  again  and  talks  for  an  hour  and  a  half, 
partly  in  defense  of  himself,  and  partly  to  let  the 
members  know  that,  called  as  they  had  been  by 
himself  to  the  Parliament,  they  had  no  right 
whatever  to  dispute  his  position  or  his  authority. 
It  was  their  business  to  legislate  for  the  interests 
of  the  people,  under  the  Government  as  it  then 
stood. 

He  then  tells  them  that  he  called  not  himself 
to  the  Protectorate,  and  affirms  that  some  of  the 
members  know  that  fact.  "  Gentlemen  that  un- 
dertook to  form  the  Government"  called  him  to 
the  guidance  of  it  ;  that  he  will  not  now  "  part 
with  the  duty,  unless  God  and  the  people  shall 
take  it  from  him ;  "  that  he  hoped,  in  a  private 
capacity, to  reap  the  benefits  "of  our  hard  labors 
and  hazzards  ;  "  that  he  had  begged  long  ago  to 
be  dismissed  of  his  charge,  begged  it  again  and 


140  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

again  (referring  to  a  time  antecedent  to  that  of  the 
Protectorate),  and  that  that  fact  was  also  known 
to  very  many ;  that  the  chief  end  of  summoning 
that  assembly,  the  Little  Parliament,  so  far  as  it 
related  to  himself,  was  to  lay  down  the  power 
which  was  in  his  hands. 

"  I  say  it  to  you  again,  in  the  presence  of  that 
God  who  hath  blessed  and  been  with  me  in  all 
my  adversities  and  successes,  that  was,  as  to  my- 
self, my  greatest  end.  .  .  .  The  authority 
I  had  in  my  hand,  being  so  boundless  as  it  was 
(for  by  act  of  Parliament  I  was  General  of  all  the 
forces  of  the  three  nations  of  England,  Scotland 
and  Ireland,  in  which  unlimited  condition  I  did 
not  desire  to  live  a  day),  we  called  that  meeting 
for  the  ends  before  expressed."  "  Divers  persons 
here  do  know  whether  I  lie  in  that." 

He  then  tells  them  that  the  Protectorate  did 
not  put  him  into  a  higher  capacity  than  before, 
but  that  it  limited  him  ;  bound  him  to  do  nothing 
without  the  consent  of  a  council,  lie  asks  the 
members  if  they  had  not  met  under  his  writs, 
and  tells  them  that  persons  "so  chosen  should 
iint  have  the  power  to  alter  the  Government,  as 
now  settled  in  on.-  single  person  and  a  Parlia- 
ment." He  tells  them  that  a  few  days  before 
they  came    thither    the   affairs  of   the  nation  were 


PARLIAMENT    AM)    KINGSHIP.  141 

in  peace  and  quiet ;  that  enemies  abroad  were 
hopeless  and  scattered  ;  but  that  the  Parliament, 
since  it  met,  had  put  everything  into  confusion, 
and  was  making  the  Government  the  scorn  of  the 
Dutch  ambassadors  who  were  then  in  London 
to  negotiate  their  master's  affairs. 

Becoming  more  earnest  toward  the  end,  he 
says  that  before  he  will  throw  away  the  Govern- 
ment he  will  be  rolled  into  his  grave  and  buried 
with  infamy.  Near  the  close  of  his  speech  he 
says,  "  I  have  caused  a  stop  to  be  put  to  your 
entrance  into  the  Parliament  House  ;  1  am  sorry 
that  there  is  cause  for  this,  but  there  is  cause." 

The  Constable  then  tells  the  members  that 
they  will  find  in  the  lobby,  without  the  Parlia- 
ment door,  a  thing  for  them  to  sign.  The 
"  thing  "  is  a  parchment,  on  which  is  engraved 
a  promise  to  be  true  and  faithful  to  the  Lord 
Protector  and  the  Commonwealth,  and  not  to 
alter  the  Government  as  it  is  settled  in  a  single 
person  and  a  Parliament. 

Before  a  month  has  passed  three  hundred  of 
the  four  hundred  members  have  put  their  names 
to  the  pledge.  A  rather  singular  sort  of  gover- 
nor you  find  this  farmer  of  St.  Ives  to  have  been, 
but  pure,  true,  honest.  Even  if  one  cannot  love 
him,  it  is  interesting  to  watch  his  movements  ;  to 


142  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

see  him  become  the  complete  master  of  all  the 
great  statesmen  of  his  clay,  the  master  of  Eng- 
land, and  the  most  invincible  of  European  rulers. 
He  tells  Bradshaw  and  the  rest  of  them,  farmer- 
like, in  the  speech  just  quoted  from,  that  he  is 
"  almost  tired  talking  to  them  so  long,"  and  he 
evidently  is  very  sorry  to  stop  the  parliamentary 
harangues.  While  this  is  going  on  inside  the 
Parliament,  outside  of  it  Oliver  is  projecting  a 
movement  which  is  to  make  the  navy  of  England 
a  permanent  and  notable  power  in  the  world. 
Yet  not  one  of  the  four  hundred  Parliament 
men  knew  what  he  was  doing  outside  the  House, 
while  he  was  scoring  them  inside,  for  their  in- 
felicitous conduct ;  not  one  of  them  know  what 
the  fleet  which  he  was  forming  is  to  do,  or  where 
it  is  to  go.  Although  tired  of  speaking,  and 
annoyed  because  he  has  to  speak,  he  is  not 
too  tired  for  action.  In  this  third  speech  Oliver 
was  not  at  his  best,  but  it  were  better  to  lose  a 
speech  of  Burke's  or  Webster's  than  to  omit 
reading1  this  talk  of  the  St.  Ives  farmer  to  his 
first  Protectorate  Parliament. 

Large  bodies  of  men,  with  varying  interests, 
personal  and  local,  as  shown  in  the  French  Revo- 
lution and  in  the  history  of  the  United  States, 
find  it  difficult  work  to  settle  a  government,  and 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  143 

so  it  proved  in  England.  After  about  five 
months  Oliver  discovers  that  the  Parliament  is 
likely  to  do  nothing-,  or  rather  nothing  but  mis- 
chief. And  then  the  "  Constable  '  calls  the 
members  to  the  "  Painted  Chamber,"  and  makes 
another  long  speech  to  them,  which  he  closes 
with  these  words  :  "  I  think  it  my  duty  to  tell 
you  that  it  is  not  for  the  profit  of  these  nations, 
nor  for  common  and  public  good,  for  you  to  con- 
tinue here  any  longer  ;  and  therefore  I  do  de- 
clare unto  yon  that  I  do  dissolve  this  Parliament." 
That  the  members  listened  in  silence,  is  both 
a  proof  of  his  greatness  and  of  the  truth  of  what 
he  had  said.  He  told  them  that  he  had  not  in- 
terfered in  any  way  with  their  proceedings ;  that 
he  had  been  caring  for  their  quiet  sitting,  and 
that  they  had  kept  him  "-locked  up  "  as  to  what 
they  were  transacting.  "  You  might  have  pro- 
ceeded to  make  those  good  and  wholesome  laws 
which  the  people  expected  from  you ;  "  but  instead 
of  "  peace  and  settlement,"  instead  of  "  mercy 
and  truth,  .  .  .  weeds  and  nettles,  briars 
and  thorns  have  thriven  under  your  shadow.  .  . 
Dissettlement  and  division,  discontent  and  dis- 
satisfaction .  .  .  have  been  more  multiplied 
within  the  five  months  of  your  sitting  than  in 
some  years  before." 


144  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHir. 

What  a  charge !  What  a  rebuke !  How 
sharp,  yet  how  tender  !  But  for  the  restraints 
of  his  moral  endowments,  but  for  the  pious 
element  in  him,  this  man  Oliver  might  have  in 
our  day,  in  the  annals  of  sarcasm,  a  place  with 
Dean  Swift  and  Junius.  He  was  too  good,  how- 
ever, to  be  needlessly  cutting,  and  so  he  let  the 
members  off  rather  kindly  and  mildly.  It  is  to 
be  regretted  that  our  limited  space  forbids  more 
of  this  speech  to  be  given  ;  but  enough  has  been 
quoted  to  indicate  the  sort  of  material  Oliver  was 
made  of,  and  that  he  had  good  and  sufficient 
reasons  for  sending  the  members  to  their  homes. 

Carlyle  says  that  this  Parliament  "  considered 
that  its  one  duty  was  to  tie  up  the  hands  of  the 
Protector  well,"  and  that  Oliver  "  thought  far 
otherwise."  Another  comment  is,  "  Courage, 
my  brave  Oliver  !  Thou  hast  but  three  years 
more  of  it,  and  then  the  coils  and  puddles  of 
this  earth  are  all  behind  thee  ;  and  Carrion 
Heath,  and  Chancellor  Hyde,  and  Charles  Stuart, 
the  Christian  king,  can  work  their  will." 

On  the  seventeenth  of  September,  1G5G,  an- 
other Parliament  and  the  Protector  met  in  the 
Painted  Chamber.  Oliver  began  his  speech  by 
saying  that  he  had  pity  on  himself  when  he 
thought  of  the  duty  before  him  ;  but  he  turns  his 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  145 

pity  to  the  members  when  he  considers  how  they 
will  have  to  listen  to  him,  in  a  close  heated  room. 
This  was  his  fifth  speech.  It  was  extempora- 
neous like  all  his  speeches.  Oliver  had,  in 
earlier  life,  preached  to  his  soldiers,  and  in  that 
way  we  suppose  he  had  acquired  the  art  of  talk- 
ing- in  public,  not,  however,  on  politics.  On  this 
occasion  he  became  very  weary,  and  said  to  the 
members,  "  I  know  you  are  so,  too."  It  was  a 
great  speech ;  a  remarkable  one  for  a  man  to 
make  who  had  been  for  twenty  years  a  farmer, 
and  for  ten  years  a  soldier;  "rude,  massive, 
genuine,  not  so  fit  for  Drury  Lane  as  for  Val- 
halla and  the  Sanhedrim  of  the  gods." 

We  regret  that  in  a  work  of  this  nature  space 
forbids  our  quoting  a  line  of  it.  In  the  lobby, 
as  they  were  retiring,  the  members  learned  that 
they  were  to  be  winnowed ;  that  something  less 
than  a  hundred  of  them  were  to  be  excluded. 
A  protest  is  made,  to  which  the  Protector  pays 
no  attention.  The  imperial  Constable  has  de- 
cided, and  can  waste  no  time  on  protests. 

It  was  at  this  time,  or  a  little  later,  that  thirty- 
eight  wagon  loads  of  Spanish  silver  passed 
through  the  streets  of  London  to  be  coined  at 
the  Tower  into  English  money  ;  an  evidence  that 

the  Government  is  not  limited  to  speech-making. 

10 


146  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

That  naval  movement,  which  was  so  much  a 
mystery  to  the  members  of  the  previous  Parlia- 
ment, has  begun  to  take  effect. 

A  large  minority,  at  least,  of  the  people  of 
England  have  now  discovered  that,  not  only  in 
war  but  in  peace,  Cromwell  is  the  fittest  man 
that  they  have  to  hold  the  supreme  command. 
When  he  returned  from  Worcester,  they  recog- 
nized him  as  their  greatest  soldier ;  they  now 
see  that  he  is  also  their  greatest  statesman  ;  the 
ablest  man  for  governing  that  can  be  found ;  not 
a  Protector  only,  but  a  born  ruler.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  new  Parliament  recognize  his  worth, 
and  by  a  large  majority  they  vote  to  offer  him 
the  kingship.  A  king  he  has  been  for  three 
years,  but  now  he  is  asked  to  accept  the  title. 

On  the  last  day  of  March,  in  the  year  1057, 
Cromwell  being  then  fifty-eight  years  old,  the 
banqueting-room  at  Whitehall  presented  a  spec- 
tacle which  never  before,  and  never  since  that 
day,  has  had  a  parallel.  It  may  have  been  the 
custom  iu  ancient  times  for  men  to  raise  upon 
their  shields  their  strongest,  ablest  warrior  and 
call  him  Icing;  but  two  centuries  ago,  kingship 
was  supposed  to  he  a  divine  gift,  received  through 
those  in  whose  veins  flowed  royal  and  sacred 
blood.      Not  so   thought  the  men  of  this  second 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  147 

Protectorate  Parliament.  They  saw  in  Cromwell 
a  true  king ;  one  needing  no  anointing  ;  a  leader 
fit  to  lead,  a  ruler  fit  to  rule,  and  now  they  conic 
to  Whitehall  to  offer  the  Protector  the  crown 
which  William  the  Conqueror  and  Elizabeth  had 
worn.  The  entire  House  came  to  present  the 
"  Petion  "  with  the  title  King  on  it. 

As  is  his  custom,  Oliver  replies  that  "the 
thing"  will  deserve  the  utmost  deliberation  and 
consideration.  Three  days  later  a  Parliament 
committee  waits  upon  him,  and  he  then  declines 
the  title,  saying,  "that  maybe  fit  for  you  to  offer, 
which  may  not  be  fit  for  me  to  undertake."  A 
few  days  further  on  a  larger  committee,  composed 
of  ninety-nine  members,  waits  upon  him,  and 
urges  his  acceptance.  Whitelocke  and  others  ex- 
haust their  legal  learning,  touching  kingship,  in 
the  effort  to  convince  him  that  it  is  his  duty  to 
take  the  name  of  king. 

There  are  seven  speeches  of  Oliver's  about  this 
matter,  and  in  not  one  of  them  can  a  line  be 
found  to  indicate  that  he  had  the  slightest 
ambition  for  a  crown.  One  sees  in  them  (or 
rather  the  writer  sees  in  them)  a  man  struggling 
to  find  the  path  before  him  ;  groping  his  way  on 
the  side  of  a  volcano,  amid  smoke  and  increasing 
darkness,    hoping,   yet    almost  against   hope,   to 


148  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

reach  sun-lit  valleys  in  safety ;  a  man,  appealing 
to  our  hearts  for  sympathy,  for  affection,  for 
pity.  With  the  approval  of  all,  and  especially  of 
the  army,  it  is  possible  he  would  have  acceded 
to  the  request :  that  he  desired  the  title,  or  put 
the  least  value  upon  it,  there  is  no  proof  :  there 
is  the  opposite  of  proof.  Constable  is  yet  the 
better  name  for  this  immortal  man. 

Let  me  emote  a  few  of  his  words.  "  I  am  not 
able  for  such  a  trust  and  charge.  .  .  .  Out  of 
necessity  I  undertook  the  business  of  Protector." 
He  "  lias  not  desired  the  continuance  of  his 
power  or  place,  under  one  title  or  another. 
Truly,  I  have,  as  before  God,  often 
thought  that  I  could  not  tell  what  my  business 
was  in  the  place  I  stood  in,  save  comparing  my- 
self to  a  good  constable  set  to  keep  the  peace 
of  the  parish.  ...  If  the  wisdom  of  the 
Parliament  should  have  found  a  way  to  settle  the 
interests  of  the  nation  upon  the  foundations  of 
justice,  truth  and  liberty.  I  would  have  lain  at 
their  feet  that  things  might  have  run  in  such  a 
current." 

Justice,  truth,  liberty  !  When,  in  the  Roman 
Forum,  or  in  any  modern  hall  of  legislation,  have 
patriots  uttered  a  more  comprehensive,  or  a  nobler 
desire?     Finally   he  says,  "3   should  not  be  an 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  149 

honest  man  if  I  did  not  tell  yon  that  I  cannot  un- 
dertake this  Government  with  the  title  of  king, 
and  that  is  mine  answer  to  this  great  and  weighty 
business." 

While  Oliver  has  the  parchment  offering  king- 
ship in  his  hands,  and  is  trying  to  tell  the  Parlia- 
ment in  proper  and  grateful  language  that  he 
declines  the  offer,  Admiral  Blake,  under  his 
orders,  is  sinking  Spanish  ships  in  the  harbor  of 
Santa  Cruz,  across  the  Atlantic,  and  an  army  is 
getting  ready  in  England  to  join  Turenne  in  the 
Low  Countries  to  fight  the  Spaniards  there. 
The  Protector  evidently  has  enough  to  do  out- 
side of  Whitehall  and  kingship,  and  he  has  also 
a  most  disagreeable  obligation  soon  to  discharge, 
touching  this  very  Parliament  which  has  offered 
him  the  crown.  The  discussion  about  that  mat- 
ter being  over,  a  new  frame  of  Government  includ- 
ing two  Houses  having  been  voted,  Oliver  having 
been  formally  installed  as  Protector,  the  prospect 
for  harmony  seemed  bright,  but  it  proved  illusive. 
The  first  session  of  the  Parliament  closed  harmoni- 
ously, and  public  affairs  went  on  prosperously  ; 
but  all  hope  of  a  settlement  vanished  soon  after 
the  second  session  began.  "  Success  on  such  a 
basis  as  the  humors  and  parliamentary  talking 
of  four  hundred  men,  is  very  uncertain." 


150  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

The  first  session  decided  to  have  another  House, 
but  did  not  decide  what  to  call  it.  Oliver  made 
up  the  "other  House,"  with  six  peers,  and  such 
"  men  of  eminence  as  the  time  had  yielded."  On 
the  opening  of  the  second  session,  his  health  not 
being  good,  he  spoke  but  little,  and  then  called 
on  Mr.  Fennes  to  discover  particularly  what  may 
be  proper  for  the  meeting.  Mr.  Fennes  dis- 
covers, among  other  things,  that  cosmos  is  rising 
out  of  chaos  in  England  ;  but  poor  Oliver,  a  day 
or  two  later,  sees  more  chaos  than  cosmos,  and 
he  deals  with  the  chaos  in  his  characteristic  way. 
The  Commons  began  their  work  in  a  dispute 
touching  the  name  of  the  other  House.  Shall  it 
be  called  a  House  of  Lords  ?  Four  hundred 
men  in  a  crazy  vessel  floating  on  a  dangerous 
shore,  and  some  of  them  foolish  enough,  instead 
of  helping  to  avert  wreckage,  to  quarrel  about  the 
shape  of  their  sails  and  the  colors  of  their  flags ! 
A  few  years  later,  standing  at  Charing  Cross, 
under  the  gibbets,  or  passing  through  the  water- 
gate  to  the  dungeons  of  the  Tower,  they  could 
repent  their  short-sightedness  and  their  folly. 
Some  of  them  had  leisure  to  repent  it  in  exile. 

Hearing  of  the  proceedings  in  the  Commons, 
(  Hiver  instantly  summoned  both  Houses  to  White- 
hall; the  members  must  appeal'  a1  three  o'elock 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSIIIP.  151 

in  the  banqueting-room.  The  Constable  of  Eng- 
land is  sick,  but  not  yet  too  sick  for  duty.  To 
that  banqueting-room,  where  kingship  had  been 
offered,  like  sheep  obeying  the  voice  of  a  shepherd, 
the  four  hundred  came  at  the  appointed  hour,  and 
Oliver  says  to  them  :  "  I  look  upon  this  to  be  the 
great  duty  of  my  place,  as  being  set  on  a  watch- 
tower,  to  see  what  may  be  for  the  good  of  these 
nations,  and  what  may  be  for  the  preventing  of 
evil."  You  are  now  come,  in  as  great  straits 
and  difficulties  as  ever  nation  was  in.  It  is  the 
"  being "  rather  than  the  well-being  that  is  at 
stake.  He  pleads  for  the  Protestant  cause 
abroad,  and  tells  them  that  concerns  the  good 
interests  of  England ;  that  the  Spaniards  have 
been  asked  to  help  the  Cavaliers ;  that  the 
"  sects  "  are  all  striving  to  be  uppermost ;  that 
it  will  be  wisdom  to  uphold  the  "settlement;'1 
that  he  will  be  ready  to  stand  or  fall  with  them 
in  the  seemingly  promising  union  ;  that  he  has 
taken  his  oath  to  govern  according  to  the  laws 
which  are  now  made  ;  and  then  he  repeats,  in 
stronger  language  than  ever,  what  he  has  often 
said  before  :  "  I  sought  not  this  place.  I  speak 
it  before  God,  angels  and  men,  I  did  not.  You 
sought  me  for  it.     You  brought  me  to  it." 

The  speech  was  the  despairing    appeal    of    a 


152  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

hero,  but  it  accomplished  no  good.  Some  of  the 
members,  indeed,  attempt  wise  legislation  :  but 
others  of  the  four  hundred  keep  up,  for  ten  days, 
their  noise  and  "  yelping  "  about  the  form  of  the 
Government.  When  on  this  earth  did  ever  four 
hundred  wise  men  get  together  and  speak  wisely  ? 

And  now  the  Protector  does  not  call  the  mem- 
bers to  Whitehall.  He  goes  to  them.  Black 
Rod,  sign  of  his  coming  and  sign  that  debate 
must  stop,  appears  in  the  Commons.  The  Pro- 
tector, it  is  announced,  is  in  the  "  other  House," 
Lords'  House  ;  and  there  he  makes  his  last  Par- 
liament speech.  A  few  months  later  his  voice 
will  be  forever  silent,  and  England  will  have  no 
one  to  rule  her  well ;  will  have,  however,  a  Con- 
vocation that  can  make  about  six  hundred  changes 
in  the  Prayer  Book,  to  annoy  and  snub  the 
Presbyterians  ;  a  Parliament  that  can  pull  a  hun- 
dred and  more  lifeless  bodies  out  of  their  tombs, 
and  pack  up  Baxter,  Bunyan  and  an  innumerable 
company  of  non-conformists  in  jail  ;  and  a  king 
who  deserves  to  be  remembered,  because,  after 
twenty-five  years  of  misrule,  he  was  able  to  gasp 
out  on  his  dying  bed,  the  humane  wish  that  Nelly 
might  not  starve,  and  so  leave  one  good  record 
of  his  reign. 

In  his  last    3peeeh   Oliver  trlls   the   members, 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  153 

rather  plainly,,  what  he  thinks  of  them,  and  what 
a  coil  they  had  got  him  into  at  the  very  time 
when  the  king-  of  Scots  is  getting  ready  to  in- 
vade England  ;  and  then  he  dissolves  the  Parlia- 
ment. In  this  speech  he  says  :  "  I  can  say,  in 
the  presence  of  God,  in  comparison  with  whom 
we  are  but  like  poor  creeping  ants  upon  the 
earth,  I  would  have  been  glad  to  have  lived 
under  my  woodside,  to  have  kept  a  flock  of 
sheep,  rather  than  undertake  such  a  government 
as  this." 

Cant  ?  Hypocrisy  ?  No,  my  reader.  His 
thoughts  go  back  to  his  old  home,  to  his  quiet 
woodside  of  St.  Ives,  to  the  peaceful,  pleasant 
memories  of  his  farmer  life ;  but  that  life  is  not 
for  him  now.  He  knows  that  there  is  no  other 
man  in  England  capable  of  saving  it ;  and  it  is 
now  doubtful  if  he  can  do  it.  But  he  must  co 
on.  Almost  at  the  moment  when  these  pathetic 
words  fell  from  him,  the  Duke  of  Ormond, 
Charles's  head  man,  lies  concealed  in  London, 
and  the  Dutch  have  hired  out  ships  to  bring  an 
army  over.  The  Protector's  return  to  private 
life  is  impossible,  so  long  as  he  is  struck  with 
the  duty  of  keeping  Charles  Stuart  out  of  Eng- 
land. This  prince  must  wait  until  Cromwell  dies, 
and  then  he  can  come  back  ;  but  he  will  come  to 


154  PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

an  England  which,  since  his  father's  day,  has 
changed ;  an  England  in  which  his  foul  court, 
with  its  Nell  Gwynns  and  its  beastly  spectacles, 
will  be  but  as  an  eruption  and  a  stench  on  the 
fair  face  of  the  country ;  an  England,  too,  which 
will  have  its  constitution  and  its  liberty  before 
the  century  has  closed,  in  spite  of  the  restoration 
of  this  monarch  and  the  succession  of  his  brother 
James. 

Almost  immediately  after  uttering  his  last 
words  to  the  Parliament,  "  God  be  judge  be- 
tween you  and  me,"  Oliver  summons  his  army 
officers,  summons  the  mayor  and  council  of  Lon- 
don, and  begins  the  work  of  arresting  royalist 
ring-leaders.  Some  are  sent  to  the  Tower  ; 
death  is  the  penalty  of  a  few  ;  mercy  is  accorded 
to  the  rest.  The  insurrection  is  suppressed.  "  An 
old  friend  of  yours  is  in  town,"  Oliver  said  to 
Lord  Broirhill,  "  in  Drurv  Lane."  "  You  had  bet- 
ter  tell  him  to  be  gone."  The  Duke  of  Ormond 
did  not  need  to  be  told  twice.  He  was  off  in  a 
twinkle  across  the  Channel,  to  inform  His  Sacred 
Majesty  that  the  game  was  up. 

It  is  a  remark  of  Bishop  Burnet,  that  it 
was  generally  believed  that  Oliver's  life  and  all 
his  aits  were  exhausted  at  once;  and  that  had 
he  lived  longer  he  could  not  have  held   things 


,„-;i0'Si 


HENRY   IKETON. 
(From  an  i  ngraving  by-Houbrdken  a/a  miniature  by  S.  Cooper. ) 


PARLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP.  155 

together.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  good  bishop 
derived  comfort  from  this  reflection ;  but  the 
fact  is  that  Oliver  never  stood  higher  or  more 
firmly  than  in  the  months  immediately  preced- 
ing his  death.  It  was  then  that  news  came  of 
great  victories  abroad ;  of  Dunkirk  taken.  It 
was  in  June,  before  his  life  went  out,  that  Louis 
XIV.  sent  a  splendid  embassy  to  congratulate 
the  "  most  invincible  of  sovereigns,"  and  the 
embassy  was  still  in  London  with  its  splendors 
when  the  clouds  gathered  in  the  autumn  over 
Hampton  Court;  in  fact,  whatever  Bishop  Bur- 
net's friends  related  to  him,  the  mere  ghost  of 
Cromwell,  a  year  after  his  death,  made  Cardinal 
Mazarin,  the  great  minister  of  France,  refuse  an 
interview  with  His  Majesty,  Charles,  while  he 
"  sent  his  coaches  and  guards  a  day's  journey,  to 
meet  Lockhart,  the  Commonwealth's  ambassador. 
The  government  of  Cromwell  was  not  exhausted 
nor  was  it  in  the  least  degree  weakened,  not- 
withstanding the  unwise  Parliaments,  until  he 
ceased  to  control  it ;  and  even  after  his  death  it 
stood  for  a  while  on  the  power  which  his  name 
left  with  it. 

Thurloe,  who  knew  more  of  Oliver's  plans 
than  others,  and  who,  indeed,  was  the  protector 
of  the  Protector,   intimates  that  another  Parlia- 


156  PAKLIAMENT    AND    KINGSHIP. 

ment  would  have  been  summoned  had  not  death 
put  an  end  to  future  efforts,  and  at  the  same 
time  extinguished  all  the  hopes  of  the  Puritans. 
In  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Victoria,  as 
intimated  before,  an  order  was  issued  from  the 
court  to  have  annexed  to  the  Prayer  Book  forms 
of  service  for  use  in  all  the  Episcopal  Churches 
of  the  kingdom.  One  of  these  services  was  for 
the  "  unspeakable  mercies  "  which  followed  the 
restoration  ;  and,  singularly  enough,  another  of 
them  called  for  praise  for  the  coming  into  Eng- 
land of  King-  William  in  safety.  The  Thanks- 
giving Service,  made  by  act  of  Parliament  in 
Charles's  time,  was  worth  preserving  as  a  curious 
piece  of  history  ;  but  to  connect  Victoria  with 
its  collects  was  a  tribute  to  Charles  wholly  un- 
called for,  and  one  for  which  Her  Majesty,  in 
her  mature  years,  could  feel  no  gratitude.  The 
service  for  the  "  unspeakable  mercies"  of  the 
restoration  is  not  found  now  in  the  English 
Prayer  Book ;  and  the  matter  is  only  alluded  to 
here  to  show  that* adoration  of  Charles  II.  and, 
perhaps,  contempt  for  Cromwell,  have  in  late 
years  somewhat  abated.  Cromwell  and  William 
III.  arc  the  men  who  deserve  thanks  and  praise 
from  the  sovereigns  and  from  the  people  of 
Im  gland. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


FOREIGN    POLICY. 


England  rose  suddenly,  under  Cromwell,  to 
a  position  among  the  nations  of  Europe  which 
she  had  never  occupied  before ;  but  within  a  few 
years  of  the  Protector's  death  she  fell  back  to 
her  old  place,  and  even  far  below  it ;  Dutch 
guns  were  then  heard  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
Thames,  and  Dunkirk  became  purchasable  by 
France.  For  two  hundred  years  England  was 
not  so  low  down  in  the  scale  of  nations  as  she 
fell  during  the  reign  of  Charles  II. ;  for  six 
hundred  and  twenty  years,  from  the  time  of 
William  I.  to  the  time  of  William  III.,  there 
was  no  reign  in  which  she  ranked  so  high  as 
during  the  Protectorate. 

The  suddenness  of  Cromwell's  recognition  by 
the  great  powers  of  the  Continent,  and  the  almost 


158  FOREIGN   POLICY. 

immediate  efforts  of  botli  Spain  and  France  to 
secure  his  friendship  and  alliance,  give  a  most 
remarkable  proof  of  his  power  and  of  the  estima- 
tion in  which  he  was  held.  He  had  at  once  the 
keen  diplomatist,  Cardinal  Mazarin,  almost  at 
his  feet ;  he  would  have  no  cousinship  with 
Louis  XIV.,  but  demanded  to  be  addressed  as 
monfrere,  my  brother  ;  and  yet  when  Beverning, 
the  lame  ambassador  from  the  States  General, 
appeared  on  political  business  at  Whitehall, 
Oliver  offered  him  a  chair  just  like  the  one  he 
himself  sat  in;  and  when  Beverning  declined  to 
take  it,  Oliver  stood  and  talked  as  an  equal. 
The  dignity  of  the  Government  must  be  pre- 
served with  the  French  king  ;  but  dignity  must 
yield  to  kindness  with  this  lame  ambassador, 
who  would  not  sit,  except  in  the  chair  he  was 
brought  in,  and  who  could  not  stand  because  of 
his  infirmity. 

The  Protector,  too,  always  required  the  same 
respect  to  be  shown  to  his  representatives  abroad 
that  had  been  previously  shown  to  the  ministers 
of  kings.  An  amusing  illustration  of  this  fact 
may  be  found  in  the  Thurloe  "State  Papers." 
Prideaux,  Oliver's  minister  at  Moscow,  noticed 
that  the  lords  of  His  Imperial  Majesty  of  Russia 
did  no!  take  off  their  hats  for  him,  and  that  he 


FOREIGN    TOLICY.  159 

was  asked  to  take  off  his  sword  when  he  had 
audience  with  the  czar.  Prideaux,  thereupon, 
told  the  Russian  chancellor  that  "  when  he  had 
the  honor  to  deliver  the  Lord  Protector's  letter 
to  His  Majesty  he  was  not  treated  with  as  repre- 
sentatives of  kings  were,"  and  that  "  England 
had  not  diminished  anything  of  its  greatness." 
The  chancellor  replied  that  he  would  report  to 
His  Majesty,  and  at  the  next  audience  "  every- 
thing was  done  "  to  Prideaux' s  satisfaction.  "  The 
noblemen  did  rise  up  uncovered,"  and  all  due 
respect  was  paid  to  the  English  Government. 

The  czar  gave  a  dinner  to  Prideaux,  and  at 
parting  said  that  "  I  should  remember  him  to 
Oliver  Vladitella,  to  whom  he  wished  good 
health.'"  Vladitella  meant  Sole  Director  of 
England,  Ireland  and  Scotland.  The  letter  also 
says  that  the  emperor  wrote  to  Oliver.  In  one 
thing,  however,  Prideaux  appears  to  have  failed. 
He  said  to  the  chancellor  that  Oliver  would  like 
to  know  why  the  czar  was  making  war  against 
the  Poles.  It  would  seem  that  Oliver  had 
enough  to  occupy  his  thoughts  without  interest- 
ing' himself  in  Poland.  The  date  of  Prideaux's 
letter  —  a  letter  which  is  quite  as  entertaining 
as  the  narratives  in  historical  novels  —  is  March 
17,  1654. 


160  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

Among  the  letters  intercepted  on  their  way  to 
France  was  one  written  soon  after  the  acceptance 
of  the  Protectorate,  which  defines  the  position 
which  Oliver  held  in  connection  with  the  Euro- 
pean powers.  "  The  Protector,"  says  the  letter, 
"  the  craftiest  man  in  all  Christendom,  hath 
made  himself  the  greatest  prince  in  the  world, 
to  whom  kings  must  do  homage ;  and  the  princes 
situated  the  farthest  off  will  be  glad  to  be  united 
to  him."  This  letter  was  written  to  Mr.  Patin, 
a  Paris  merchant,  and  it  contained  the  truth 
touching  Oliver's  influence  and  power.  The 
princes  near  and  those  far  off  were  all  inclined, 
or  forced,  to  pay  the  Protector  homage  ;  some  of 
them  desired  to  be  closely  connected  with  him. 
Sweden  early  sent  its  congratulations  ;  in  1654 
Spain,  still  the  strongest  power  in  Europe,  offered 
"  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance ;  "  yet  earlier, 
Denmark  sent  an  ambassador  to  London. 

A  Copenhagen  letter  says  :  "  In  case  the  treaty 
with  the  Dutch  should  not  succeed,  then  this 
king"  (of  Denmark)  "will  apply  to  the  Pro- 
tector of  England." 

Embassies  were  then  what  they  arc  not  in  our 
day.  Forty  gentlemen  accompanied  the  Dutch 
ambassadors  to  Whitehall,  twenty  of  whom 
were  expecting  "  to  have  the  honor  to  kiss  the 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  101 

Protector's  hand."  His  Highness,  one  of  the 
ambassadors  reports,  declined  the  kissing,  but 
he  "  bowed  to  all  the  gentlemen,  one  by  one." 

France,  not  for  love  of  Oliver,  but  in  fear  of 
him,  submitted  to  England  ;  and  was  kept  in  an 
attitude  of  deference,  as  already  related,  even 
for  a  year  subsequent  to  the  Protector's  death. 
Portugal,  Tuscany,  Venice,  Genoa,  Tunis,  Al- 
giers, and  the  Mediterranean  pirates  followed  in 
the  train  of  the  greater  European  powers,  and 
by  treaties  or  alliances,  paid  their  homage  to  the 
St.  Ives  farmer,  who,  through  the  whole  of  this 
illustrious  foreign  work,  and  the  honors  which  he 
gained,  was  acting  as  a  constable  at  home,  watch- 
ing and  defeating  plotting  royalists ;  watching 
and  defeating  the  unwise  movements  of  his 
Parliaments. 

Oliver  was  fortunate  in  securing  to  aid  him, 
in  his  foreign  work,  two  men,  one  of  whom  will 
always  be  remembered  and  honored  in  the  British 
navy  ;  while  the  other,  neglected  and  almost  for- 
gotten, deserves  to  have  his  name  written  on  the 
pages  of  history  with  the  names  of  the  most  able 
and  faithful  of  diplomatists.  Blake  and  Thurloe 
were  the  fittest  selections  that  could  be  made ; 
the  one  for  work  at  sea,  the  other  for  work  in 

council.     Oliver  had  the  reputation  not  only  of 
11 


162  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

knowing  what  material  a  soldier  should  be  made 
of,  but  also  of  seeing-  generally  into  the  charac- 
ters of  men ;  and  two  coidd  not  have  been  found 
more  competent  to  assist  him  than  his  admiral 
and  his  devoted  secretary.  Blake  was  a  country 
gentleman  of  the  good  English  type ;  a  Puritan, 
but  one  who  could  laugh,  blunt  in  manner,  free 
from  fear,  inflexible  in  duty,  and  a  man  who 
could  obey  Oliver  in  the  Spanish  business  with  a 
clear  conscience. 

The  immense  volumes  of  "  State  Papers  "  left 
by  John  Thurloe  give  proof  of  his  great  ability, 
his  wonderful  industry,  and  his  devotion  to  the 
Protector.  Cecil  was  not  more  watchful  over 
Queen  Elizabeth  than  Thurloe  over  Oliver.  In- 
deed, it  may  be  doubted  if  the  Protector  would 
have  lived  to  do  his  work  but  for  the  spies  whom 
Thurloe  kept,  and  the  intercepted  letters  which 
he  placed  in  Cromwell's  hands.  Plot  after  plot 
against  the  Government  failed ;  but  it  is  probable 
that  some  of  these  plots  would  have  been  success- 
ful if  Thurloe  had  had  less  clear  sight,  less  energy, 
and  a  less  strong  will. 

In  the  year  1831  the  great  magician  of  fiction, 
the  enchanter  of  his  age,  published,  in  an  English 
review,  this  gloomy  statement :  "  The  large  collec- 
tion, called  Thurloe's  'State  Papers,'  containing 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  103 

the  most  authentic  materials  respecting  the  period 
of  the  great  civil  war  and  of  Cromwell's  domi- 
nation, was,  not  long-  since,  and  perhaps  still  is 
to  be  purchased  at  something  little  higher  than 
the  price  of  waste  paper."  Thurloe's  seven  folio 
volumes,  which  the  present  writer  has  used  in 
preparing  this  little  book,  weigh  about  forty  or 
fifty  pounds  avoirdupois,  and  would  be  worth, 
delivered  at  a  paper  mill,  less  than  one  dollar ; 
for  historical  purposes  these  volumes  have  a 
value  which  cannot  be  measured  by  money.  The 
annals  left  by  Julius  Caesar  are  not  more  precious 
to  the  student  of  Roman  history  than  are  these 
papers  to  the  student  of  English  history. 

Cromwell  and  Thurloe  evidently  were  not  in 
demand  in  the  English  market  in  the  year  1831. 
In  truth  the  Protector  was  then  an  object  only 
to  be  seen  through  royalist  mediums,  and  in 
royalist  sewers  ;  a  disgusting,  ill-tempered,  whin- 
ing, hypocritical  creature  ;  a  "  grand  imposter  " 
who  rose  "  by  his  subtle  arts  in  praying,  preach- 
ing, groaning  and  howling  to  the  highest  pitch 
of  sovereignty;"  a  "monster"  lacking  all  good 
qualities ;  a  "  bad  man,"  consigned  to  hell  by 
Lord  Clarendon,  and  by  Southey  stopped  just 
on  the  edge. 

Sir  Walter,  you  thought,  when  you  were  writ- 


1G4  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

ing  the  sentence  which  we  have  quoted,  that 
"  Waverley  "  and  "  Woodstock,"  with  their  artistic 
pictures,  would  always  be  worth  more  than  a 
penny  a  pound.  You  did  not  dream  that  some 
readers,  within  a  period  of  sixty  years,  finding 
these  stories  not  to  contain  real  history,  would 
value  them  at  the  "  price  of  waste  paper,"  and 
be  looking-  into  Thurloe  for  true  and  vivid  pict- 
ures of  the  past,  and  for  a  wonderful  accumula- 
tion of  "  the  most  authentic  materials  respecting 
the  period  of  the  great  civil  war,  and  of  Crom- 
well's domination."  For  a  historical  novel,  with 
truth  for  its  basis,  no  one  work  of  the  seventeenth 
century  would,  we  believe,  supply  so  much  matter 
as  Thurloe's.  And  as  to  history,  it  is  enough  to 
say  that  Thurloe's  "  letters  of  intelligence,"  "  in- 
tercepted letters,"  once  secret  letters  written  with 
lemon  juice,  letters  written  in  cipher,  which  dis- 
close their  contents  to  sharp  eyes  in  Whitehall 
Palace,  reports  of  foreign  ministers,  reports  of 
spies,  etc.,  have  supplied  Samuel  R.  Gardiner 
with  no  small  part  of  the  material  which  he  has 
used  in  the  preparations  of  his  "History  of  the 
Great  Civil  War."  Thurloe  is  no  longer  in  the 
waste  paper  basket. 

It  was  impossible  that  Oliver  should  leave  out 
of  sight,  in  his  foreign   policy,  the  commercial 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  105 

and  material  interests  of  England  ;  but  it  was  as 
the  Protector  of  Protestantism,  and  the  avenger 
of  those  who  in  his  view  were,  to  use  Milton's 
words,  "  slaughtered  saints  "  that  he  became  con- 
spicuous and  powerful.  It  was  not  for  the  com- 
merce, or  aggrandizement  of  his  country  that  he 
chiefly  lived,  but  for  the  championship  of  what 
he  believed  to  be  religion.  It  was  love  for  the 
people  of  his  country,  love  as  simple  and  as  pure 
as  was  Washington's,  that  guided  him. 

It  was  not  so  much  to  make  the  nation  great 
that  lie  labored,  but  to  make  it  safe  and  happy. 
The  glory  of  England  was  a  result  of  his  polity  ; 
it  was  not  its  object.  He  would  have  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  the  Protestants  of  Europe 
had  it  been  in  his  power  to  unite  them  ;  failing 
in  that,  relying  on  himself,  on  Blake,  on  his  Iron- 
sides, and  on  God,  he  determines  to  do  what  he 
can  to  lessen  the  power  of  Rome,  and  especially 
to  cripple  the  blood-stained  hand  of  the  king  of 
Spain.  His  sincerity  in  this  no  one  who  knows 
what  his  education  had  been,  and  what  his  letters 
and  speeches  reveal,  can  for  a  moment  doubt. 
One  distinguished  Roman  Catholic  writer,  Lin- 
gard  the  historian,  has  acknowledged  his  honesty. 
»  Dissembling  in  religion,"  he  says,  "  is  contra- 
dicted by  the  uniform  tenor  of  his  lift'/" 


166  FOREIGN   POLICY. 

Within  a  few  mouths  of  his  admission  to  the 
Protectorate,  Oliver  signed  treaties  of  peace  with 
three  Protestant  nations,  Denmark,  Sweden  and 
Holland ;  and  had  the  Church  of  Rome  and 
Philip  IV.  of  Spain  been  tolerant,  the  war  flags 
of  the  navy  would  probably  have  been  furled, 
leaving  Blake  no  duty  except  that  of  compelling 
Tunis,  Algiers  and  Tripoli  to  stop  their  piracies, 
and  to  release  the  English  captives  whom  they 
held. 

Spain,  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cent- 
ury, though  growing  weaker  year  by  year,  was 
still,  perhaps,  the  strongest  nation  on  the  conti- 
nent, and  she  was  still,  as  she  had  been  for  a  long- 
period,  the  terror  of  Protestants.  Her  Inquisi- 
tion, though  not  in  full  vigor  in  Oliver's  day,  yet 
continued  its  work  of  burning  Christians,  and  it 
yet  added  mercilessly  to  the  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands whom  it  had  imprisoned,  sometimes  to  the 
annoyance  of  English  sea  captains,  and  traders 
in  Spanish  ports.  The  Armada  had  proved  a 
failure,  and  the  Thirty  Years'  War  had  ended. 

Austria  could  no  longer  hope  to  overthrow  the 
German  followers  of  Luther  ;  but  France,  little 
inclined  to  toleration,  was  rising  into  power,  and 
the  question,  Shall  Roman  Catholicism  be  domi- 
nant in  Euro})c.  and  continue  its  torturing  prac- 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  1G7 

tices  ?  was  not  fully  settled.  At  least  so  it 
appeared  to  Oliver,  and  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  a  crime  and  a  horror  impos- 
sible during  the  Protectorate,  gives  support  to 
his  opinion. 

He  has  been  criticised  for  not  seeing  that  the 
danger  was  over ;  for  still  holding,  in  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  ideas  which  pre- 
vailed among  Puritan  Englishmen  at  the  out- 
break, in  his  youth,  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  he  fully  believed,  as  he 
wrote  to  his  admirals,  that  "  the  Lord  had  a  con- 
troversy with  that  Romish  Babylon  of  which  the 
Spaniard  is  the  great  under-propper  ;  "  and  that 
he  believed  what  he  said  to  his  Parliament  of 
1654,  "you  have  on  your  shoulders  the  interests 
of  all  Christian  people  in  the  world."  The  cor- 
rectness of  his  view  may  be  disputed  ;  but  his 
honesty,  which  alone  we  here  wish  to  prove,  is  too 
evident  to  admit  of  dispute.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances and  with  his  convictions,  the  Pro- 
tector, as  his  speeches  and  letters  indicate^  con- 
sidered it  a  part  of  his  business  not  only  to  keep 
guard  over  Protestants  wherever  he  could  reach 
them  by  his  authority  or  prestige,  but  also,  if 
possible,  to  put  it  out  of  the  power  of  princes  to 
persecute    them.      Striking   illustrations    of    his 


168  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

efficiency  in  this  line  of  policy  will  presently  be 
given ;  but  we  must  now,  for  a  page  or  two,  fol- 
low the  fortunes  of  Blake. 

The  first  work  of  Admiral  Blake  at  sea  was 
to  blockade,  for  six  months,  Prince  Rupert  in 
Kinsale  Harbor,  Ireland;  and  on  the  escape  of 
the  prince  to  follow  him  to  the  Tagus  to  blockade 
him  again.  The  king  of  Portugal  interfering, 
he  burned  three  of  his  ships,  captured  seventeen 
of  them  and  sailed  for  home.  He  soon  made 
sail  again,  found  the  royalist  fleet  in  the  harbor 
of  Malaga  and  destroyed  it.  He  next  took  the 
Scilly  Islands.  In  the  Dutch  war  he  was  at 
the  outset  defeated  by  Von  Tromp  who  had  an 
overwhelming  force ;  in  the  sequel  he  conquered 
the  Dutch  commander. 

In  November,  1654,  he  is  sent  by  Oliver  to 
the  Mediterranean  to  bring  the  Duke  of  Tus- 
cany, the  Knights  of  Malta  and  the  piratical 
States  of  northern  Africa  to  terms.  The  Dey  of 
Tunis,  in  scorn,  resisted  and  bade  the  admiral 
"  behold  his  castles."  Blake  sailed  into  the  harbor, 
within  musket  shot  of  the  castles,  fired  nine  of  the 
Dey's  ships,  and  brought  the  pirate  to  a  treaty. 

War  witli  Spain  followed  ;  and  after  cruising 
off  Cadiz  and  the  Spanish  coast  for  a  while, 
Blake,  though   in   poor  health,  started   his  fleet 


ADMIRAL   BLAKE. 
[From  in,  engraving  by  T.  Preston,  c.  1730,  ofapiclure  then  in  (he  possession 

Of  J.  Amis.) 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  1G9 

for  Santa  Cruz,  in  Teneriffe,  where  in  the  bay, 
lying-  in  crescent  shape,  he  found  sixteen  Spanish 
vessels,  the  Plate  Fleet,  at  anchor  under  the  shelter 
of  the  guns  of  the  castle  and  several  forts.  He 
entered  the  bay,  poured  his  broadsides  in  every 
direction  and  soon  the  gold  ships  became  useless 
charred  hulks.  Even  Clarendon  does  not  with- 
hold a  sort  of  praise  for  this  exploit.  He  says, 
"The  whole  action  was  so  incredible  that  all 
men  who  knew  the  place  wondered  that  any 
sober  man,  with  what  courage  soever  endowed, 
would  ever  have  undertaken  it." 

This  was  the  last  naval  engagement  of  this 
great  captain.  He  recrossed  the  Atlantic,  but 
not  for  repose  and  honors  in  England.  He 
sailed  again  for  the  coast  of  Spain,  sailed  there 
for  duty,  for  his  love  of  country,  to  use  his  own 
words,  "to  hinder  foreigners  from  fooling-  us." 
Failing  health,  however,  at  last  compelled  him  to 
return  to  his  native  shores,  but  he  was  not  to 
see  them  ;  he  died  when  his  ship  was  entering 
the  harbor  of  Plymouth.  The  annals  of  naval 
warfare  contain  few,  if  any,  more  honored  names 
than  that  of  Robert  Blake. 

At  the  time  when  the  English  fleet  sailed  for 
the  Mediterranean,  Oliver  dispatched  another 
fleet    with  secret  orders   directing  an   attack  on 


170  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

St.  Domingo ;  the  expedition  proved  a  failure 
as  regards  that  island,  but  it  secured  for  Eng- 
land her  first  possession  in  that  part  of  the  world 
where  Spain  had  made  those  vast  acquisitions 
which  aided  in  making  her  the  most  conspicuous 
empire  in  Europe,  but  which  could  not  save  her 
from  sinking,  before  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  to  a  second-rate  power.  Jamaica  was 
added  to  the  British  Colonies. 

"While  these  new  and  strange  things  were  go- 
ing on  at  sea,  Oliver  was  proving  his  strength 
on  the  Continent  by  acts  to  which  the  Catholic 
powers  were  not  accustomed,  and  which  somewhat 
startled  them.  The  Duke  of  Savoy  had  begun  a 
massacre  of  his  Protestant  subjects  in  the  Alpine 
mountains,  and  while  Milton  "called  on  God  to 
avenge  his  slaughtered  saints,"  Cromwell  deter- 
mined to  interfere. 

( Harendon's  account  of  this  affair  is  worth 
transcribing.  "Cromwell's  greatness  at  home 
was  but  a  shadow  of  the  glory  lie  had  abroad. 
It  was  hard  to  discover  which  feared  him  most, 
France,  Spain,  or  the  Low  Countries,  where  his 
friendship  was  current  at  the  value  he  put  upon 
it.  As  they  did  all  sacrifice  their  honor  and 
their  interest  to  his  pleasure,  so  there  is  noth- 
ing he  could  have  demanded  that  either  of  them 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  171 

would  have  denied  him.  To  manifest  which,  there 
needs  only  two  instances.  The  first  is  when  those 
of  the  valley  of  Lucerne  had  unwarily  rebelled 
against  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  which  gave  occasion 
to  the  Pope  and  the  neighbor  princes  of  Italy  to 
call  and  solicit  for  their  extirpation  ;  and  their 
prince  positively  resolved  upon  it,  Cromwell  sent 
his  agent  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  a  prince  with 
whom  he  had  no  correspondence  or  commerce, 
and  so  engaged  the  cardinal "  (Mazarin)  "  and 
even  terrified  the  Pope  himself,  without  so  much 
as  doing  any  grace  to  the  English  Roman  Catho- 
lics (nothing  being  more  usual  than  his  saying 
that  his  ships  in  the  Mediterranean  should  visit 
Civita  Vecchia,  and  that  the  sound  of  his  cannon 
should  be  heard  in  Rome),  that  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  thought  it  necessary  to  restore  all  that  he 
had  taken  from  them,  and  did  renew  all  those 
privileges  they  had  formerly  enjoyed  and  newly 
forfeited." 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  extract  that  the  Pro- 
tector, in  this  case,  acted  simply  as  a  constable 
to  keep  the  peace  for  Protestants.  But  Claren- 
don does  not  give  the  whole  of  the  story.  When 
the  news  of  the  persecution  reached  him,  Oliver 
was  about  to  sign  a  treaty  which  he  desired  with 
Louis  XIV.  of  France.     The  day  had  come  for 


172  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

the  signing  of  the  treaty,  but  the  Protector  re- 
fused to  put  his  name  to  it  unless  the  French 
king  will  promise  to  assist  him  in  putting  a  stop 
to  the  Duke  of  Savoy's  atrocities.  Milton,  his 
Latin  secretary,  now  blind,  sends  oitt  letters  to 
the  Protestant  States,  and  writes  his  immortal 
sonnet.  Louis  yields.  Cardinal  Mazarin  reluc- 
tantly informs  the  Duke  of  Savoy  that  the  exiles 
who  have  been  left  alive  by  his  soldiers  must  be 
permitted  to  return  to  their  homes.  Oliver  him- 
self sends  two  thousand  pounds  for  their  relief ; 
a  day  of  religious  service  is  appointed  ;  collections 
aggregating  a  very  large  amount  of  money  are 
taken  in  the  churches  of  England.  The  Lord 
Protector  is  said  to  have  melted  into  weeping  on 
this  occasion  ;  if  so  the  fire  of  a  righteous  anger 
must  soon  have  dried  his  tears. 

It  was  a  daring  and  a  noble  act  which  he 
accomplished,  and  not  a  common  one,  surely,  in 
the  history  of  rulers.  It  is  related  that  the  Duke 
of  Savoy,  after  having  been  thus  checkmated, 
sent  for  the  Protector's  picture  to  hang  in  his 
gallery.  No  wonder,  for  he  had  an  eye  for  a 
brave  man  :  and  very  likely  he  was,  at  heart,  as 
compassionate  as  Oliver,  and  as  honest  in  his 
work".  It  would  be  an  error  to  suppose  that  all 
those  who  burned  heretics  were  more  wicked  than 


FOREIGN    TOLICY.  173 

other  men.  It  was  a  duty  with  many  of  them 
to  cleanse  the  Church.  Even  Isabella,  to  whom 
Columbus  was  so  much  indebted,  a  gentlewoman, 
who  made  the  Castile  court  "a  nursery  of  virtue," 
and  the  purity  of  whose  piety  no  one  can  doubt, 
was  the  nurturing-  mother  of  the  Inquisition  ;  that 
organization  to  her  was  sacred  ;  and  a  sacred  duty 
it  may  have  seemed  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy  to 
persecute  the  heretics  of  his  dominion.  At  any 
rate  he  deserves  a  white  mark  for  sending  for 
Oliver's  picture. 

"  The  other  instance  of  his  authority,"  says 
Clarendon,  "was  yet  greater  and  more  incred- 
ible," and  "  nobody  can  wonder  that  Cromwell's 
memory  remains  still,  in  those  parts  (Nismes  and 
its  vicinity  in  France),  and  with  those  people,  in 
great  veneration."  The  facts,  condensed,  are  the 
following :  "  In  the  city  of  Nismes,  .  .  .  where 
those  of  the  religion  do  most  abound,  there  was 
a  great  faction  .  .  .  when  the  consuls  (who 
are  the  chief  magistrates)  were  to  be  chosen. 
Those  of  the  reformed  religion  "  (the  Huguenots) 
"  had  the  confidence  to  set  up  one  of  themselves 
for  that  magistracy,  which  they  of  the  Roman 
religion  resolved  to  oppose  with  all  their  power. 
The  dissension  between  them  made  so  much  noise 
that  the  intendant  of  the  province,  who  is  the 


174  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

chief  magistrate  in  all  civil  affairs  throughout 
the  whole  province,  went  thither  to  prevent  any 
disorder  that  might  happen.  When  the  day  of 
election  came,  those  of  the  religion  possessed 
themselves,  with  many  armed  men,  of  the  town- 
house,  where  the  election  was  to  be  made.  The 
magistrate  sent  to  know  what  their  meaning  was, 
to  which  they  answered  they  were  there  to  give 
their  voices  for  the  choice  of  the  new  consul,  and 
to  be  sure  that  the  election  should  be  fairly  made. 
The  bishop  of  the  city,  the  intendant  of  the 
province,  and  all  the  officers  of  the  church,  and 
the  present  magistrate  of  the  town,  went  together 
in  their  robes  to  be  present  at  the  election,  with- 
out any  suspicion  that  there  would  be  any  force 
used.  When  they  came  near  the  gate  of  the 
town-house,  which  was  shut,  and  they  supposed 
would  be  opened  when  they  came,  they  within 
poured  out  a  volley  of  musket-shot  upon  them, 
by  which  the  dean  of  the  church,  and  two  or 
three  of  the  magistrates  of  the  town  were  killed 
upon  the  place,  and  very  many  others  wounded ; 
whereby  some  died  shortly  after." 

An  account  of  this  transaction  was  sent  to 
the  court  at  Paris,  and  "  the  court  was  glad  of 
the  occasion,  and  resolved  that  this  provocation 
.     .     .     should  warrant  all  kinds  of  severity  in  that 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  175 

city,  even  to  the  pulling-  down  their  temples,  and 
expelling  many  of  them  for  ever  out  of  the  city, 
which  with  the  execution  and  forfeiture  of  many 
of  the  principal  persons  would  be  a  general  mor- 
tification of  all  of  the  religion  in  Franco,  with 
whom  they  were  heartily  offended  ;  and  a  part 
of  the  army  was  forthwith  ordered  to  march 
toward  Nismes,  to  see  this  executed  with  the 
utmost  rigor." 

Probably  this  account  from  Clarendon  might 
have  been  modified  by  a  Huguenot  eye-witness ; 
but,  admitting  that  the  facts  were  as  stated,  the 
power  of  the  Protector  is  made  the  more  remark- 
able. "  Those  of  the  religion  in  the  town "  at 
once  sent  to  the  magistrates  to  excuse  themselves, 
and  to  impute  what  had  been  done  to  the  rash- 
ness of  particular  men,  who  had  no  order  for 
what  they  did.  "  The  magistrates  replied  that 
they  could  do  nothing  till  the  king's  pleasure  be 
known." 

The  Huguenots  "  very  well  knew  what  the 
king's  pleasure  "  would  be  ;  and  so  they  sent  a 
Scotchman,  one  Moulins,  "  to  Cromwell,  to  desire 
his  protection  and  interposition."  Cromwell  re- 
plied to  the  messenger  that  he  "  would  take  care 
of  the  business,"  and  "  that  night  "  he  sent  another 
messenger   to  his  ambassador,  Lockhart,  "  who 


176  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

by  the  time  Moulins  came  thither  "  (to  Paris) 
"  had  so  far  prevailed  with  the  cardinal,  that 
orders  were  sent  to  stop  the  troops,  which  were 
upon  their  march  toward  Nismes."  A  full 
pardon  and  amnesty  were  secured  from  the  king. 
Such  is  Clarendon's  narrative,  and  he  adds : 
"  Cromwell  would  never  suffer  himself  to  be 
denied  anything  he  ever  asked  of  Cardinal 
Mazarin." 

It  is  impossible  to  recall  this  incident,  and 
forget  what  occurred  in  France  twenty  years 
later.  Could  Cromwell  and  his  Ironsides  have 
lived  till  1685,  there  would  have  been  no  "  Revo- 
cation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes."  Madame  de 
Maintenon  would  have  pleaded  in  vain  with 
Louis  XIV.  to  expiate  his  sins  by  pronouncing 
sentence  against  the  Huguenots.  In  the  failure 
of  diplomacy,  an  English  army  would  have 
planted  its  standards  before  the  walls  of  Paris, 
to  which,  if  need  were,  a  hundred  thousand  Pro- 
testants from  the  million  or  more  in  the  country, 
would  have  rallied  :  and  that  calamity  which 
deprived  France  of  its  best  citizens,  and  drove 
women  and  children  into  exile,  would  have  been 
averted. 

At  the  courf  of  Louis  XIV.,  England,  during 
the    Protectorate,   was    represented    by  William 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  177 

Lockliart,  a  Scotchman,  a  soldier,  an  ambassador 
who  had  no  superior,  probably  no  equal,  in  his 
age  ;  a  man  worthy  to  serve  under  Oliver,  and 
in  company  with  Thurloe  and  Milton.  His 
abilities  were  great  enough  to  obliterate  the 
memory  of  his  connection  with  the  Common- 
wealth, and  to  secure  for  him  from  Charles  II., 
after  all  was  over  with  the  Protectorate,  the 
same  place  in  the  French  court,  which  he  had 
held  under  Cromwell.  A  new  treaty,  which  he 
made  with  Louis,  resulted  in  the  last  triumph 
for  England,  connected  with  the  Protector's 
administration.  It  was  agreed  that  six  thousand 
men  of  the  English  army  should  join  the  French 
forces  for  an  attack  on  the  Spanish  army  in  the 
Netherlands.  The  Protector  had  two  objects  in 
view :  to  cripple  Spain,  and  to  secure  for  Eng- 
land a  harbor  or  two  on  the  coast  opposite  the 
Channel,  which  would  aid  him  in  the  event  of 
attempted  royalist  invasions.  Under  date  of 
August  31,  1657,  he  wrote  Lockliart :  "  This 
action  will  probably  divert  the  Spaniards  from 
assisting  Charles  Stuart  in  any  attempt  on  us  ; " 
and  this  also  he  wrote :  "  If  the  French  be  so 
false  to  us,  as  that  they  would  not  have  us  have 
any  footing  "'  (harbor  town  as  pay  for  aid  ren- 
dered) "  then  ask  for  payment  of  our  expenses, 
12 


178  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

and  draw  off  our  men."  It  was  at  this  time 
that  Frenchmen  are  reported  to  have  said : 
"  The  cardinal  is  more  afraid  of  Oliver  than  of 
the  devil." 

The  expedition  was  successful  ;  but  while 
Loudon  and  all  England  was  celebrating  its  vic- 
tories, and  rejoicing  especially  over  the  acquisition 
of  Dunkirk,  Oliver,  broken  down  by  grief,  was 
ministering  at  the  bedside  of  his  daughter  Eliza- 
beth, and  the  time  was  drawing  near  when  his 
mighty  spirit  must  end  its  earthly  mission. 

It  was  the  aim  of  the  Protector,  in  all  his 
foreign  policy,  to  unite  Protestant  Europe  with 
England,  in  one  great,  effectual  league.  Euro- 
pean politics  and  accessions  of  power  to  the 
Commonwealth  centered  in  his  mind  about  that 
to  him  desirable  and  even  necessary  result.  It 
has  been  said  that  his  pious  enthusiasm  in  this 
particular,  deceived  and  misguided  him.  It  lias 
been  affirmed  that  he  was  misled  by  the  conser- 
vative and  unspeculative  temper  of  his  mind,  as 
well  as  by  the  strength  of  his  religious  enthu- 
siasm. Of  the  change  in  the  world  around  him, 
remarks  a  late  historian,  Cromwell  "  seems  to 
have  discovered  nothing."  Perhaps  so,  but  we 
must  question  the  truth  of  the  statement.  It  is 
impossible  that  Oliver  should   have  kept  his  eyes 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  179 

shut  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  He  cer- 
tainly discovered  not  a  little  during-  the  time  of 
the  Protectorate.  Although  he  may  not  have 
learned  through  Prideaux  all  the  plans  and  pur- 
poses of  the  czar,  he  probably  knew  as  much 
about  Russian  policy  as  modern  diplomatists. 
The  changes  in  the  world  were  known  and  com- 
prehended  in  the  cabins  at  Plymouth,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Connecticut,  in  the  settlement  at 
Boston,  through  the  numerous  pamphlets  of  the 
time  ;  that  Oliver,  with  these  and  the  thousands 
of  Thurloe  documents  within  his  sight,  was  igno- 
rant of  them,  is  incredible.  The  work  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  was  as  closely  watched  by  intelligent 
Puritans  as  was  Grant's  work  or  Lee's  work  in 
our  civil  war.  We  venture  to  suggest  that 
Oliver  knew  as  much  of  what  was  going  on  in 
Germany  and  adjacent  countries  as  the  modern 
historian  who  writes  about  these  matters.  How 
Wallenstein,  in  the  interests  of  popery,  had  over- 
run Brandenburg  and  Denmark,  and  how  Gus- 
tavus, in  the  face  of  the  laughter  of  European 
generals,  had  landed  his  little  army  on  the  coast 
of  Pomerania,  and  begun  the  exploits  which  have 
immortalized  his  name ;  how  the  army  of  Tilly, 
the  erreat  commander-in-chief  of  the  Catholic 
League,  was  crushed,  and  the  power  of  Austria 


180  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

broken  ;  how  Protestantism  was  saved,  and  Gus- 
tavus  was  recognized  as  its  liberator,  Oliver  well 
knew  ;  and  did  he  not  also  know  that  the  same 
spirit  which  had  inspired  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  and  which  had  made  a  wilderness  of  the 
Protestant  parts  of  Germany,  still  existed  in 
Spain,  in  France,  and  in  half  the  countries  of 
Europe,  at  the  time  when  he  was  Protector?  It 
is  easy  for  a  historian,  with  a  touch  of  his  pen, 
to  question  Cromwell's  statesmanship  touching 
this  matter  of  a  Protestant  League,  and  to  say 
that  he  was  behind  his  age  ;  and  it  is  quite  as 
easy  to  affirm,  as  we  do,  that  a  combination  of 
the  Protestant  countries  for  common  protection, 
was  not  an  unwise  policy;  and  that,  had  such  a 
league  as  Cromwell  desired  and  labored  for,  been 
secured,  the  history  of  the  Huguenots,  who  after 
the  time  of  the  Protector,  under  the  fatal  rule  of 
Louis,  were  subjected  to  the  most  merciless  perse- 
cutions, and  finally  scattered  as  exiles  in  the 
Protestant  parts  of  Europe,  and  on  the  shores  of 
America,  might  have  been,  probably  would  have 
been,  quite  different  from  that  history  which, 
after  the  lapse  of  two  centuries,  is  now  read  with 
a  shudder  and  with  indignation. 

Protector  of  England,  and,  on  a  limited   scale, 
Protector  of  the  Protestants  of  Europe,   Oliver 


FOREIGN    POLICY.  181 

was  also  the  protector  of  the  New  England  Col- 
onies ;  and  the  only  English  protector  which  these 
colonies  ever  had. 

In  the  line  of  English  rulers,  from  James  I. 
to  AVilliam  IV.,  there  was  not  one,  save  Cromwell, 
who  is  entitled  to  our  grateful  remembrance. 
The  debt  which  we  owe  to  James  I.  and  to  his 
son  Charles  is  not  a  debt  of  gratitude.  To  them 
we  are  indebted  for  exiling  our  forefathers  ;  but 
these  Stuarts  have  no  claim  on  our  love.  To 
Cromwell,  on  the  other  hand,  may  be  traced 
the  peace  and  security  which  for  a  short  period 
were  enjoyed  by  the  Pilgrims  and  adventurers  in 
their  perilous  enterprise  of  establishing  them- 
selves, and  of  creating  governments  better  for 
them  than  the  Government  from  which  they 
fled  ;  and  to  Cromwell  may  be  traced,  through 
papers  and  letters  which  now  exist,  the  kind 
wish  to  remove  to  a  more  congenial  place  the 
suffering  colonists.  Happily,  the  scheme  failed, 
but  its  failure  detracts  nothing  from  the  benevo- 
lence of  the  Protector.  He  alone  of  all  Eng- 
lish sovereigns  pursued  a  wise  and  kind  policy 
toward  the  colonies  of  America  ;  and  if  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut  allow  the  year  1899, 
the  anniversary  of  Cromwell's  birth,  to  pass  with- 
out erecting  monuments  of  some  sort  to  perpetu- 


182  FOREIGN    POLICY. 

ate  his  name,  that  duty  will  be  done  in  1999,  if 
there  are  then  in  New  England  men  who  can 
recognize  ability,  goodness,  heroism,  and  also 
recognize  a  debt  due  to  the  most  neglected,  the 
most  defamed,  and  yet  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
of  Englishmen. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 


From  the  year  1640,  when  Cromwell  left  Ely 
for  London,  to  the  spring  of  1654,  when  the 
royal  apartments  of  Whitehall  were  assigned 
him  as  his  residence,  his  domestic  life  was  con- 
stantly interrupted ;  and  for  this  period  there  is 
little  to  be  related,  except  in  connection  with 
domestic  duties,  which,  in  the  case  of  his  son 
Richard,  occupied  a  great  deal  of  thought  and 
time.  There  are  no  records  of  visits  to  the  home 
where  he  had  left  his  family,  and  bnt  few  records 
of  his  life  when  he  was  in  London.  For  a  time, 
previous  to  1646,  he  appears  to  have  lived  in 
lodgings  in  Drnry  Lane,  then  a  fashionable 
quarter ;  and  some  time  during  that  year  he  took 
a  house  in  King  Street,  not  far  from  the  Abbey. 
To  this  house  he  brought  his  family,  or  a  part  of 


184  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

it.  The  next  change  probably  was  to  the  Cock- 
pit, a  part  of  Whitehall.  Oliver's  Dunbar  letter 
to  his  wife,  dated  September,  1654,  indicates  that 
she  was  living  there,  and  it  was  in  that  house, 
not  in  the  royal  rooms  of  "Whitehall,  that  the 
famous  conference,  preceding  the  breaking  up 
of  the  Long  Parliament,  was  held  in  April, 
1653. 

It  was  an  interesting  family  that  Oliver  could 
gather  at  his  side  in  his  hours  of  leisure ;  an 
aged  mother,  a  wife  "  dearer  than  any  creature," 
four  daughters,  and  his  sons,  Richard  and  Henry. 
The  name  of  Richard  is  not  a  pleasant  one  to 
meet  on  the  pages  of  English  history  ;  but,  after 
all,  Richard  was  a  good  specimen  of  a  clever, 
agreeable  Englishman,  a  clubbable  sort  of  young 
man.  The  chief  fault  to  be  found  with  him  is 
that  he  was  not  strong  enough,  not  able  enough, 
to  carry  his  father's  constable  baton.  Carlvle, 
without  mercy,  scornfully  surnames  him,  "Poor 
Idle  Triviality:  "  but  Carlvle.  we  know,  was  not 
sparing  of  his  adjectives  or  black  paint  when 
he  really  disliked  one.  Henry  was  an  able  man, 
and  possibly  had  the  baton  fallen  to  him,  he 
would  have  established  a  House  of  Cromwell  to 
last  as  long  as  the  Plantagenet,  or  Tudor,  or 
Stuart  houses. 


THE   MOTHER   OF   OLIVER   CROMWELL. 
(From  a  picture  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Russell  Astley,  at  Chequers  Court.) 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  185 

All  the  daughters  were  married  when  young-. 
Elizabeth  became  Mrs.  Clay  pole.  Bridget  became 
the  wife  of  Ireton,  a  brave  soldier  and  an  able 
writer;  he  was  left  by  Cromwell  in  Ireland 
as  his  deputy,  and  there  he  died.  Mary  and 
Frances,  "  two  little  wenches,"  as  Oliver  calls 
them,  whom  he  wants  to  provide  for  when  he  is 
arranging  Richard's  marriage  money  contracts, 
were  young  enough  to  enjoy  the  glories  of  the 
royal  parts  of  Whitehall,  at  its  occupation. 
They  were  there  two  or  three  years,  when  the 
"  musical,  glib-tongued  Mary  "  (whom  Dean  Swift 
pronounced  handsome,  and  like  her  father),  was 
married  to  Lord  Fauconberg  ;  and  "  poor  little 
Fanny,"  after  much  trouble  and  perplexity  (some 
jealous  lover  having  put  it  into  His  Highness's 
head  that  Rich  was  not  just  the  right  kind  of  a 
man),  to  the  son  of  Lord  Rich. 

These  domesticities,  of  which  history  contains 
but  few  records,  but  in  which  Oliver,  a  loving 
father,  shared,  were  preceded  by  Richard's  mar- 
riage to  Dorothy  Mayor,  in  1649.  Touching 
this  matter  and  touching  Richard,  we  find  in 
Carlyle's  book  nineteen  letters  which  illustrate 
Cromwell's  character  and  give  an  idea  of  him  as 
a  business  man.  His  patience,  his  anxiety,  his 
fair  and  open  dealing,  his  generosity,  his  thought 


186  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

for  his  two  little  girls  —  then  about  ten  and 
twelve  years  old  —  are  seen  distinctly  in  his  cor- 
respondence. He  is  too  busy  a  man  to  see  Mr. 
Mayor,  Dorothy's  father ;  has  too  much  to  do  in 
Parliament,  and  in  preparation  for  the  second 
civil  war,  to  leave  time  for  going  to  Hursley ;  and 
so  Oliver  gets  Colonel  Norton,  "  Dick  Norton," 
and  other  friends,  to  manage  the  matter. 

In  his  first  letter  to  the  colonel  he  writes  that 
he  has  had  "  an  offer  of  a  great  proposition  from 
a  father  of  his  daughter,  yet  I  rather  incline  to 
this"  (the  Mayor  alliance)  "in  my  thoughts; 
because,  though  the  other  be  very  far  greater, 
yet  I  see  different  ties,  and  not  that  assurance  of 
Godliness,  though,  indeed,  of  fairness." 

He  declines,  then,  the  great  offer,  and  proceeds 
to  get  his  son  married  into  a  family  which  has  no 
rank,  and  but  little  property.  "  The  considera- 
tion of  piety  in  the  parents,"  he  writes  to  Norton, 
and  "  such  hopes  of  the  gentlewoman  in  that  re- 
spect make  the  business  to  me  a  great  mercy." 

O,  Oliver !  should  your  like  appear  in  the 
domestic  marrying  world  of  this  year,  1892,  he 
would  be  looked  upon  as  a  pious  prodigy.  A 
place,  perhaps,  would  be  found  for  him  by  one 
of  our  ambitious  religious  organizations  at  the 
Columbian  Chicago  Exposition. 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  187 

Whether  Oliver  managed  to  get  time  to  go  to 
the  wedding,  this  writer  does  not  know ;  but  after 
he  had  got  his  army  ready  for  Ireland,  and  was 
on  his  way  with  it,  he  wrote  at  Bristol,  July  12, 
1G49,  to  Mr.  Mayor,  that  he  is  "  very  glad  to 
hear  that  our  children  have  so  good  leisure  to 
make  a  journey  to  eat  cherries."  Richard  and 
Dorothy  have  evidently  been  off  on  a  little  pleas- 
ure excursion.  In  this  letter  Oliver  writes,  "  I 
have  delivered  my  son  up  to  you,  and  I  hope  you 
will  counsel  him ;  he  will  need  it.  ...  I 
hope  I  shall  have  your  prayers  in  the  business 
to  which  I  am  called."  The  business  was  the 
war  in  Ireland. 

A  few  days  later,  "  From  aboard  the  John," 
he  writes  to  his  "  beloved  daughter  "  Dorothy, 
"I  do  entirely  love  you,  .  .  .  and  I  hope  a 
word  of  advice  will  not  be  unwelcome,  nor  un- 
acceptable to  thee."  The  advice  touches  religion. 
"  I  desire  you  both  to  make  it,  above  all  things, 
your  business  to  seek  the  Lord,"  etc.  This  does 
not  confirm  the  impression  that  Cromwell  entirely 
parted  with  his  piety  when  he  became  a  great  man. 

Let  us  now  try  to  get  a  glimpse  of  Whitehall 
as  it  was  in  Oliver's  day.  There  was  no  Mr. 
Pepys  in  the  gallery  of  the  banqueting-room  to 
cive   us    such    vivid  sketches  as  he  left  of  the 


188  LATER    DOMESTIC   LIFE. 

garish  beauties  and  the  gay  cavaliers  who  sur- 
rounded His  Sacred  Majesty,  Charles  II.,  a  few' 
years  later ;  but  there  are  pictures  in  Thurloe's 
"  State  Papers  "  worth  reproducing,  and  with  what 
we  know  of  the  men  who  resorted  to  Oliver,  and 
when  we  think  of  the  household  there  —  of  Eliza- 
beth Claypole,  of  the  old  mother,  of  the  dear 
wife,  of  Oliver  himself,  and  others  —  it  is  easy  to 
create  pictures  of  the  scenes  in  that  Protectorate 
palace. 

Thurloe,  in  one  of  those  enormous  volumes 
which  good  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  told  us  the 
value  of  in  his  day,  has  a  letter  written  by  one 
of  the  Dutch  ambassadors,  Jongestall,  to  His 
Excellency,  William  Frederick,  Earl  of  Nassau, 
containing  an  account  of  a  dinner  given  to  the 
three  Dutch  ambassadors  at  Whitehall,  on  the 
proclaiming  of  peace,  April  27,  1G54.  If  the  old 
dates  are  correct,  this  dinner  was  given  just  a 
fortnight  after  Mrs.  Cromwell  had  taken  her 
place  in  the  royal  establishment ;  and  rather  an 
anxious  time  it  must  have  been  for  her.  The  old 
mother  was  yet  alive,  and  bright  enough  to  be 
interested  in  what  was  going  on;  but  she  evi- 
dently did  not  accompany  the  Lady  Protectress 
to  the  dinner  table  ;  and  yet,  though  verging  to 
her  ninety-fourth  year,  she'very  likely  caught  the 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  189 

sound  of  her  son's  voice  when  he  was  singing: 
after  the  feast.  Perhaps  that  sound  carried  her 
back  to  the  Huntingdon  home,  and  Oliver's  boy- 
hood. It  was  a  remarkable  diplomatic  festive 
gathering'  in  that  one  particular  of  the  Protec- 
tor's giving  out  a  metrical  psalm,  by  lines,  and 
leading  the  singing-  himself. 

How  he  got  on  with  the  Paris  ambassadors, 
at  dinner,  when  they  came  to  London,  history 
does  not  tell  us ;  but  he  certainly  would  omit 
psalm  singing-  with  Cardinal  Mazarin's  nephews, 
or  with  any  representatives  of  Louis  XIV.  These 
pious  Dutch  ambassadors,  however,  liked  it. 

Jongestall's  letter  is  dated  April  28.  "  Yester- 
day," he  writes,  "  about  one  o'clock  in  the  fore- 
noon, the  peace  was  proclaimed  before  Whitehall, 
Temple  Bar,  Paul's  Church,  and  the  Old  Ex- 
change. That  same  day,  at  night,  the  guns  went 
off  at  the  Tower,  and  aboard  the  ships  three  times, 
and  bonfires  were  made,  according  to  the  custom 
of  the  country,  before  Whitehall,  up  and  down  the 
city.  We  did  the  like  on  the  back  side  of  our 
houses,  toward  the  river,  and  burned  near  eighty 
pitch  barrels ;  and  we  had  trumpeters  and  others 
to  play  all  the  while.  The  river  was  so  full  of 
boats  that  there  was  hardly  any  water  to  be 
seen  ;  at  the  same  time  several  lords    and  ladies 


190  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

of  quality  came  to  see  us,  whom  we  treated. 
In  sum,  all  things  were  done  here  in  great 
solemnity.  God  Almighty  give  us  further  bless- 
ing to  this  great  work !  Yesterday,  at  noon,  we 
were  invited  to  dinner,  by  His  Highness,  the 
Lord  Protector,  where  we  were  nobly  entertained. 
Mr.  Strickland  and  the  master  of  ceremonies 
came  to  fetch  us  in  two  coaches  of  His  Highness, 
about  half  an  hour  past  one,  and  brought  us  to 
Whitehall,  where  twelve  trumpeters  were  ready 
sounding  against  our  coming.  My  Lady  Nieu- 
port  and  my  wife  were  brought  to  His  Highness 
presently  ;  the  one  by  Mr.  Strickland,  and  the 
other  by  the  master  of  ceremonies,  who  received 
lis  with  great  demonstrations  of  amity.  After  we 
staid  a  little,  we  were  conducted  into  another 
room  where  we  found  a  table  ready  covered.  His 
Highness  sat  on  one  side  of  it  alone:  my  Lord 
Beverning,  Nieuport  and  myself  at  the  upper  end, 
and  the  Lord  President  Lawrence  and  others 
next  to  us.  There  was  in  the  same  room  another 
table,  covered,  for  other  Lords  of  the  Council,  and 
others.  At  the  table  of  my  Lady  Protectrice 
dined  my  Lady  Nieuport,  my  wile,  my  Lady 
Lambert,  my  Lord  Protector's  daughter  "  (  Eliza- 
beth)  "and  mine.  The  music  played  all  the 
while  we  were  at  dinner.      The  Lord  Protector 


LATER   DOMESTIC    LIFE.  191 

had  us  into  another  room  where  the  Lady  Pro- 
tective and  others  came  to  us,  where  we  had 
also  music  and  voices,  and  a  psalm  sung  which 
His  Highness  gave  us,  and  told  us  that  it  was 
yet  the  best  paper  that  had  been  exchanged  be- 
tween us  ;  and  from  thence  we  were  had  into  a 
gallery  next  the  river,  where  we  walked  with  His 
Highness  about  half  an  hour,  and  then  took  our 
leaves,  and  were  conducted  back  again  to  our 
houses  after  the  same  manner  we  were  brought." 

Jongestall  adds,  in  a  postscript,  that  the  Lord 
Protector  showed  a  great  deal  of  kindness  to  his 
wife  and  daughter.  This  picture  of  Jongestall's 
lacks  the  fine  touches  and  the  colorings  of  a  his- 
torical novelist  like  Scott,  but  it  has,  at  least, 
the  merit  of  accuracy. 

Within  three  weeks  of  the  time  of  this  dinner, 
the  domestic  life  of  the  Whitehall  household  was 
disturbed  by  a  plot  for  the  assassination  of  the 
Protector.  It  was  arranged  that  on  Saturday, 
the  twentieth  of  May,  when  on  his  way  in  his 
coach  to  Hampton  Court,  thirty  men  should 
attack  his  guards,  kill  him,  and  proclaim  Charles 
king.  But  it  happened,  much  to  the  comfort  of 
Mrs.  Cromwell  and  the  children,  some  of  whom 
would  probably  have  taken  the  drive  with  their 
father  on  that  pleasant  May  day,  that  Thurloe, 


192  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

who  was  Argus-eyed,  was  able  to  seize  five  of 
the  plotters  "in  the  very  birth-time  of  their 
hour."  A  capital  scheme,  but  one  may  read, 
in  the  moldy  folios  of  Bush  worth,  lamentations 
over  the  fate  of  some  of  the  conspirators.  Som- 
erset pleaded  guilty  and  was  saved  ;  Gerrard  and 
Vowel  were  executed. 

One  of  the  chief  occupations  of  European 
kings,  for  centuries  past,  has  been  recreation, 
and  particularly  in  the  line  of  killing  animals 
and  birds.  Louis  XVI.,  a  prisoner  in  Paris, 
deeply  regretted  the  loss  of  his  gaming  privi- 
leges ;  Pepys,  seeking  Charles  II.  to  consult 
about  naval  matters,  would  find  that  the  kinor 
had  gone  to  hunt.  The  history  of  rulers  for 
three  hundred  years,  apart  from  war,  is  mainly 
the  history  of  diversions.  Not  so  with  Oliver. 
He  once,  however,  we  know,  went  hawking,  and 
once  went  on  a  picnic.  The  picnic  was  in  Hyde 
Park,  a  more  quiet  and  secluded  place  two  hun- 
dred years  ago  than  now.  He  took  Thurloe  and 
a  few  friends  with  his  six  new  horses,  a  gift  of 
the  Duke  of  Oldenburg,  and  after  a  lunch  at- 
tempted to  drive  himself,  with  the  results  of 
injury  to  Thurloe,  to  himself,  and  the  discharge 
of  a  pistol  which  he  carried.  There  were  no 
newspaper  reporters  around  at  the  time  of  this 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  193 


accident ;  but  the  three  solid  Dutch  ambassadors, 
who  still  lingered  in  London  after  their  famous 
dinner,  wrote  to  the  States  General  the  full  par- 
ticulars,  which  can  be  read  in  the  Thurloe  "  State 
Papers."  Carlyle  says  :  "  Small  anecdote  that 
figures  larger  than  life  in  all  the  books  and  biog- 
raphies.  I  have  known  men  thrown  from  their 
horses  on  occasion,  and  less  noise  made  about  it, 
my  erudite  friend.  But  the  essential  point  was, 
His  Highness  wore  a  pistol.  Yes,  His  Highness 
is  prepared  to  defend  himself ;  has  men,  and  also 
.  .  .  devils  and  devils'  servants  of  various 
kinds  to  defend  himself  against,  and  wears  pistols, 
and  what  other  furniture,  outward  and  inward, 
may  be  necessary  to  that  object." 

The  court  at  Whitehall,  in  the  time  of  the 
Protectorate,  must  have  presented  scenes  to  an 
observer's  eye  quite  in  contrast  with  those  at  St. 
Germain's,  and  in  most  of  the  palaces  of  Europe. 
The  age  was  one  when  the  keeping  of  a  mistress 
or  two  by  a  ruler,  however  pious  and  devoted  to 
the  church  he  might  be,  seemed  to  be  expected. 
That  was  almost  the  universal  rule  ;  and  in  one 
case  a  king,  who  loved  his  wife  only,  is  said  to 
have  conformed  to  it  in  deference  to  public 
opinion. 

No  reflection  on  Oliver  in  this  particular  of 

13 


194  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

chastity  is  now  reproduced  by  historians  ;  and  it 
is  only  necessary  to  recall  those  who  resorted  to 
Whitehall,  to  know  that  the  banqueting-room, 
so  polluted  in  Charles's  time  of  the  "  unspeakable 
mercies,"  was  white  and  clean  in  the  Protector's 
day.  With  the  exception  of  Thurloe,  Mr.  John 
Milton  was,  probably,  as  often  there  as  any  other 
man ;  often  on  business,  often  for  recreation ; 
for  music,  of  which  the  immortal  poet  and  his 
companion,  Oliver,  were  very  fond.  The  Rev. 
John  Wheelwright,  his  old  foot-ball  playmate, 
dropped  in  on  Oliver  at  Whitehall,  and  other 
New  England  Puritans  were  visitors  there. 
Thurloe,  who  kept  a  spy  in  every  court  of  Eu- 
rope, even  in  Charles's  little  movable  court,  was 
of  course  a  constant  visitor ;  and  if  he  and  Oli- 
ver, when  plots  were  on  foot,  got  off  by  them- 
selves and  had  a  quieting  pipe  together,  who  can 
blame  them  ?  It  is  related  that  Dryden,  whose 
lines  we  have  quoted,  was  a  guest;  but  the  less 
said  about  him  now,  in  this  connection,  the  better. 
The  light  of  Whitehall  was  Elizabeth  (  la\  pole, 
Oliver's  daughter,  in  whom  he  had  garnered  up 
his  heart — a  sweet  and  beautiful  woman. 

It  is  easy  to  fill,  in  the  mind's  eve.  this  White- 
hall Palace  with  the  great  and  prominent  men 
of  the  time.     Some  bishops  (Low  Church  ones) 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  195 

were  there,  doctors  of  divinity,  professors  from 
the  universities,  solid  learned  lawyers,  admirals 
—  Blake  among  them  —  army  officers,  foreign 
ambassadors,  etc. 

There  was  one  inmate  of  Whitehall  who  calls 
for  a  page  in  this  narrative  —  Oliver's  old  mother, 
who  is  said  to  have  given  him  some  of  his  best 
traits  of  character.  She  was  now  ninety-four 
years  old,  but  her  mental  faculties  were  but  little 
obscured.  Every  day,  it  is  related,  her  kind, 
affectionate  son  visited  her  in  her  room.  Every 
day  she  wished  to  see  his  face  and  to  hear  his 
voice.  To  her  he  was  not  the  great  captain  of 
Dunbar,  nor  the  invincible  conqueror  whom  all 
the  sovereigns  of  Europe  feared ;  he  was  her 
Oliver,  her  boy,  her  only  one,  the  pet  of  the  old 
Huntingdon  home.  He  sits  and  talks  with  her, 
but  not  a  word  is  said  of  war  or  parliaments  ; 
the  talk  is  of  the  far  past. 

Memories  sweet  and  dear  are  gone  over  again 
and  again,  and  never  seem  to  lose  their  interest : 
the  kind  father,  long  ago  gone,  who  took  his 
boy  to  Cambridge ;  the  old  house,  the  brook  run- 
ning near  it ;  the  winter  evenings  when  Doctor 
Beard  and  others  came  in  for  a  little  talk ;  Cousin 
Hampden  ;  yes,  with  tears  and  tender  voice,  good 
Uncle  Oliver,  godfather  Oliver,  and  the  pleasant 


196  LATER   DOMESTIC   LIFE. 

walks  to  Hinchinbrook.  All  the  past,  little  of 
the  present,  is  gone  over.  At  last  came  a  scene 
worth  the  vision  of  an  angel.  Oliver  for  the  last 
time  is  by  her  side,  and  she  is  passing  to  the 
other  life.  She  looks  up  and  says,  "  My  dear 
son,  I  leave  my  heart  with  thee  ;  good-night !  "  and 
dies.  Tenderly,  through  nearly  forty  years  of 
widowhood,  this  mother  had  been  watched  over 
and  cared  for  by  the  most  dutiful  of  sons,  and 
now  he  lays  her  body  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
She  was  a  noble  woman.  Even  royalists  ■  spoke 
kindly  of  her.  Her  picture  is  a  pleasant  one  to 
look  at.  Her  memory  will  be  kept  alive,  for  she 
was  the  mother  of  a  hero. 

But  little  is  known  of  Oliver's  domestic  life  in 
Whitehall,  but  much  in  regard  to  it  may  be  in- 
ferred from  his  character,  which  shines  out  from 
his  letters,  speeches  and  kind  actions  with  remark- 
able clearness.  It  may  be  doubted  if  there  can 
be  found  a  saint  in  the  Roman  calendar  for 
whom  so  many  positive  proofs  of  goodness  can 
be  found.  This  will  seem  a  strange  statement 
to  those  who  have  looked  upon  him  as  a  selfish, 
blood-thirsty,  cruel  man  ;  but  between  the  time 
when  he  looked  after  poor  old  sick  "Benson,'' 
and  "divers  poor  people  in  ye  work-house  "  of 
Ely,  to  the  time  when   he  saved    Ormond  from 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  197 

the  Tower  and  sent  him  back  to  Charles,  the 
instances  of  his  generous  and  pious  acts  are 
numerous  and  striking.  We  know  Saint  Louis, 
the  best  of  the  French  saints,  a  man  worth  can- 
onizing if  any  are  ;  but  of  his  good  deeds  history 
does  not  record  so  many  as  can  be  indisputably 
placed  to  the  credit  of  Oliver. 

Our  hero  then,  having  been  proved  to  be 
good  outside  of  his  house,  we  may  infer  that  the 
domestic  life  in  Whitehall,  or  rather  what  there 
could  be  of  it,  between  the  pranks  of  Anabaptists 
and  the  plots  of  royalist  assassins,  was  a  genial 
and  pleasant  life.  We  know  that  when  Oliver 
drove  out  to  Hampton  Court,  as  he  usually  did 
on  Saturdays,  Elizabeth  and  his  other  children 
were  sure  of  having  a  good  time  with  their 
father.  We  can  be  sure  that  he  had  Dorothy's 
parents  up  from  Hursley  now  and  then,  for  a 
pleasant  visit.  We  can  be  sure  that  music  and 
sinirincf  were  not  limited  to  state  occasions,  and 
to  those  solid  Dutch  ambassadors.  He  was  the 
possessor  of  a  fine  library,  and  that  fact  throws 
light  on  his  private  life.  Amidst  his  pressing 
cares  and  duties  he  found  some  time  for  books. 
One  can  hardly  think  of  him  as  a  man  having  an 
eye  for  pictures  ;  but  he  is  credited  with  having 
saved  the  paintings  of  Raphael.     His  own  like- 


198  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

ness,  in  the  Dunbar  time,  lie  did  not  care  to  have 
taken,  though  an  engraver  had  been  sent  four 
hundred  miles,  from  London  to  Edinburgh,  to 
put  it  on  a  medal.  He  was  anxious,  however,  to 
have  the  engraver  looked  after  and  permanently 
employed  ;  and  in  his  letter  to  the  medal  com- 
mittee, Mr.  Symonds,  who  had  "  made  so  great  a 
journey  about  a  business  importing  so  little," 
was  the  main  subject  which  enlisted  his  generous 
thought.  Half  the  letter  is  about  Symonds  ;  the 
Dunbar  medal,  with  his  face  on  it,  awakens  but 
little  interest  in  his  earnest  and  large  soul.  It 
must  have  been  an  annoyance  to  him  to  sit  to 
Lely ;  one  can  almost  hear  his  tone,  "  paint  me 
as  I  am."  The  "  wart  "  may  still  be  seen  on  the 
picture  which  hangs  in  Warwick  Castle. 

The  Dutch  dinner  was  not  the  only  one  given 
at  Whitehall  of  which  there  is  record  in  Thurloe. 
One  day  Oliver  had  a  large  company  of  clergy- 
men, Dr.  Owen  and  others,  to  dine  with  him,  and 
an  old  writer  says,  "  He  sat  at  table  with  them, 
and  was  cheerful  and  familiar  in  their  company." 
He  did  not,  the  reader  will  notice,  sit  alone  on 
this  occasion,  as  be  was  compelled  by  his  office 
to  do  when  ambassadors  took  dinner  with  him. 

It  must  be  remarked  that  this  domestic  life 
was  groing  on   amid  the  events  described  in  an- 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  199 

other  chapter ;  going  on  when  Blake  was  blazing 
away  with  his  gnus  at  sea  ;  when  the  clay  of 
prayer  was  appointed,  and  the  collection  of 
money  made  for  the  persecuted  Protestants  of 
Piedmont ;  when  desperadoes  were  trying  to  get 
his  head,  and  the  large  rewards  which  Charles 
had  offered  for  it ;  when  private  fast  days  were 
kept  by  Oliver  and  his  council ;  when  judges 
were  summoned  to  the  "  Painted  Chamber  "  of 
Westminster  to  hear  a  sermon  from  Mr.  Bridges  ; 
when  the  slow  judges  of  the  Chancery  Court,  and 
the  long-winded  lawyers  of  Temple  Bar,  took 
quite  a  different  view  of  the  twenty-three  thou- 
sand cases  pending  from  that  taken  by  Oliver, 
who  desired  that  weary  litigants  should  have 
their  suits  administered  on  with  justice  and 
purity,  instead  of  being  dragged  along  year  after 
year  for  the  benefit  of  those  to  whom  their 
claims  had  been  intrusted. 

One  of  the  Dutch  ambassadors  states  in  a 
letter  that  the  Protector  secured  for  the  Pied- 
montese  one  hundred  thousand  pounds ;  an  over- 
estimate, probably,  but  the  amount  was  large ; 
equal  certainly  to  any  modern  charity  collection  ; 
perhaps  what  a  million  dollars  would  be  worth 
in  our  day.  This  was  a  part  of  Oliver's  domes- 
tic life,  an  episode  of  the  warrior's  and  stateman's 


200  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

life.  "  Good-natured,"  writes  Whitelocke.  Yes  ; 
and  more  than  that :  pity  for  the  distressed,  help 
for  those  needing  help,  were  with  him  unfailing-. 
He  had  just  the  qualities  which  fit  one  to  manage 
a  modern  humane  society. 

Another  little  flash  of  light  is  thrown  on  the 
domestic  life  by  a  letter  dated  June  17,  1657. 
Oliver  writes  to  Fleetwood,  his  son-in-law,  deputy 
in  Ireland.  "  My  dear  Charles,  my  dear  love  to 
thee."  Love  to  "  my  dear  Biddy,  who  is  a  joy  to 
my  heart,  ...  if  the  good  of  the  public  "  will 
allow,  "come  over  with  your  dear  wife."  He 
wants  to  see  Biddy  and  Charles  at  Whitehall, 
but  they  must  not  come  at  the  sacrifice  of  the 
good  of  the  public.  To  one  who  will  think  a 
moment,  that  sportive  nickname,  "  Biddy,"  will 
throw  not  a  flash  only,  but  a  flood  of  light  on 
Oliver.  He  is  tired  of  ambassadors  and  Parlia- 
ment men  ;  he  wants  to  have  Biddy  and  Charles 
by  his  side.  One  of  the  Arnolds,  if  the  writer 
remembers,  has  written  something  about  our 
needing  "light  and  sweetness."  Now  if  ever  a 
man  and  a  father  had  those  qualities,  that  stout 
Englishman,  Oliver  Cromwell,  had  them.  Light 
ami  sweetness  encircled  his  mother,  his  wife,  all 
his  children,  and  shone  through  his  life  to  bless 
and  comfort  others. 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  201 

A  month  after  this  letter  was  written,  the 
" Banqueting-room "  was  "hung  with  arras," 
the  o-alleries  were  "full  of  ladies,"  the  Life 
Guards  in  their  "  gray  frock  coats  with  velvet 
welts,"  were  making  as  good  a  show  as  possible  ; 
and  the  poor  and  to  be  pitied  Lord  Protector  is 
seen  standing  on  "  a  carpet  with  a  chair  of  state 
behind  him."  A  "  brilliant  Swedish  gentleman 
ambassador,  with  numerous  gilt  coaches  and  in- 
numerable outriders,"  has  arrived  in  London,  and 
it  is  necessary  to  give  him  audience.  The  am- 
bassador saluted  thrice  as  he  advanced;  "thrice 
lifting  his  noble  hat  and  feathers  as  the  Protec- 
tor  lifted  his."  Then  followed  the  speeches. 
Oliver's  was  brief,  but  to  the  point.  "  My  Lords, 
you  are  welcome  into  England.  ...  I  am 
very  willing  to  enter  into  a  nearer  and  more 
strict  alliance  and  friendship  with  the  king  of 
Swedeland.  ...  I  shall  nominate  some  per- 
sons to  meet  and  treat  with  your  lordships." 
This  speech  would  be  a  good  one  for  some  of  our 
modern  diplomatists  to  imitate. 

In  that  same  year,  a  "  learned  Portuguese 
Jew,"  of  Amsterdam,  made  his  appearance  at 
Whitehall,  and  to  him  Oliver  gave  a  warm  and 
hearty  welcome.  Four  hundred  years  before  the 
Jews    had    been    banished    from    England,    and 


202  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

Oliver  thought  it  was  time  to  allow  them  to 
come  back.  So  after  a  little  private  talk,  and 
probably  some  hospitalit}%  he  got  together  his 
chief  advisers  to  meet  Manasseh  Ben  Israel, 
give  him  a  hearing  and  see  what  could  be  done. 
One  who  was  at  the  gathering  relates  that  the 
Protector  never  spoke  so  well  as  when  pleading 
for  the  banished  Jews.  He  would  open  the  arms 
of  England  and  receive  them  back  again.  But, 
alas  !  the  chief  justices,  most  of  the  clergy  and 
the  "  Scripture  prophecies "  were  against  the 
Protector,  and  the  edict  of  banishment  remained 
unchanged.  Those  musty  folios,  worth  a  penny 
a  pound  in  the  year  1831,  tell  us  that  some, 
and  even  some  of  the  clergy,  were  with  Oliver ; 
but  the  majority  carried  the  day  against  the 
Jews.  It  is  pleasant,  however,  to  know  that 
Oliver,  in  his  capacity  as  constable,  managed  to 
slip  Jews  into  London,  and  to  allow  them  a 
synagogue.  Our  old  friends,  the  royalists,  pene- 
trate his  motive.  He  wished  to  borrow  money 
of  the  flews.  Oliver  could  get  money  enough  at 
Amsterdam,  or  on  the  London  Exchange,  or,  at 
a  pinch,  he  could  pnll  out  a  few  royalist  teeth  : 
money  was  the  least  of  Oliver's  wants. 

On   the   evening   of    the    day    when   this   con- 
Eerence    touching   the   Jews   was   held.   Oliver's 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  203 

domestic  life  was  interrupted  by  the  appearance 
of  Ludlow  at  Whitehall.  He  came  from  Ire- 
land. Ludlow  had  no  love  for  Oliver  after  the 
Protectorate  began.  He  now  comes  to  White- 
hall to  say  that  he  will  be  peaceable  "  so  long 
as  he  sees  no  chance  otherwise ;  "  that  he  will 
not  try  to  upset  the  Government,  unless  a  good 
opportunity  occurs.  The  Protector  permits  him 
to  reside  in  Essex,  keeping  his  eye  upon  him. 

And  then  came  those  wearisome  weeks  when 
Parliament  disturbed  the  domestic  life  of  White- 
hall in  the  matter  of  kingship.  No  wonder  that 
Oliver,  distracted  by  the  lawyers  and  forced  to 
make  antagonistic  speeches,  wished  himself  back 
to  his  old  woodside  and  his  sheep.  Kingship  set- 
tled in  the  negative,  the  next  disturbance  is  the 
inauguration  as  Protector  —  the  robe  of  purple 
velvet,  the  scepter  of  gold,  the  chair  of  state  and 
more  speech-making.  One  would  like  to  know 
how  the  Constable  felt,  and  what  he  said  to  his 
wife  and  children  when  he  got  back  at  evening 
from  Westminster,  and  from  this  semi-royal 
symbolism. 

The  day  was  Friday,  June  26,  1657,  and  after 
the  ceremonies  in  the  "  Painted  Chamber  "  the 
Government  went  on  as  before.  We  soon  find 
Oliver  writing  to  Lockhart  to  get   Dunkirk  ;  to 


204  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

"  divert  the  Spaniards  from  assisting  Charles ;  " 
to  "  take  boldness  and  freedom  "  in  dealing  with 
the  French.  Work,  work  is  the  business  of 
Oliver.  Shows,  even  his  own  inauguration,  were 
not  of  much  use  to  him.  This  was  his  second 
inauguration. 

And  now  there  is  momentary  brightness  in 
the  domestic  life.  In  November,  1657,  both  the 
younger  daughters  were  married.  "  The  poor, 
little  Fanny,"  so  troubled  about  her  engagement, 
is  now,  according  to  old  newspapers,  the  "most 
illustrious  Lady  Frances,"  and  she  marries  into 
the  family  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  The  earl 
himself,  the  Countess  Dowager  of  Devonshire, 
and  "many  other  persons  of  high  honor  and 
quality  "  went  to  the  wedding.  In  the  following 
week  at  Hampton  Court,  the  "musical,  glib- 
tongued"  Mary  was  married.  Beautiful,  bright- 
est days,  to  be  soon  followed  by  blackest  nights ; 
sunlit  islands  ere  long  to  be  submerged  forever. 

Between  the  time  of  these  weddings  and  Sep- 
tember 3,  1658,  Oliver  is  watching  the  frantic 
and  turbulent  Anabaptists,  the  Duke  of  Ormond 
and  royalist  plotters.  Four  years  have  now  gone 
since  the  Protector  escaped  the  danger  of  the 
drive  to  Hampton  Court, and  again  the  "hydra" 
lifts  its  head,  but  lifts  it  only  to  be  cut  off,  and 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  205 

cut  off  for  the  last  time.  A  night  is  appointed 
by  the  royalists,  the  night  of  May  15,  1G58,  to 
fire  the  houses  at  the  Tower,  and  to  overthrow 
the  Government.  But  Thurloe's  eyes  are  sleep- 
less, and  Cromwell's  arm  is  still  strong.  The 
governor  of  the  Tower,  instead  of  putting  out 
the  fire  of  burning  buildings,  marches  with  artil- 
lery into  the  city ;  the  noise  which  he  makes,  as 
his  guns  pass  through  the  streets,  is  enough  to 
drive  the  royalists  to  hiding-places.  A  few  days 
later  a  court  of  justice,  made  up  of  all  the  judges 
and  chief  law  officials,  "  a  hundred  and  thirty 
heads,"  sat;  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hewit  and  Sir 
Henry  Slingsby  are  condemned  to  die ;  to  others 
mercy  is  granted.  Eushworth  and  other  old 
writers  deeply  lament  the  death  of  these  two 
men.  "  In  those  same  June  days,"  writes  Car- 
lyle,  "  while  Hewit  and  Slingsby  lay  down  their 
heads  on  Tower  Hill,  and  the  English  hydra 
finds  its  master  is  still  here,  there  arrives  the  news 
of  Dunkirk  gloriously  taken,  Spaniards 
gloriously  beaten ;  victories  and  successes  abroad 
which  are  a  new  illumination  to  the  Lord  Pro- 
tector in  the  eyes  of  England.  Splendid  nephews 
of  the  Cardinal,  Manginis,  Dukes  de  Crequi, 
come  across  the  Channel  to  '  congratulate  the  most 
invincible    of   sovereigns ; '    young  Louis    XIV. 


206  LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE. 

himself  would  have  come,  had  not  the  attack 
of  smallpox  p  re  vented."  "  Once  more  Oliver 
has  saved  Puritan  England,  and  he  looks  with 
confidence  toward  summoning  another  Parlia- 
ment of  juster  disposition  toward  Puritan  Eng- 
land and  him."  "  Not  till  Oliver  Cromwell's 
head  lie  low  shall  English  Puritanism  bend 
its  head  to  any  created  thing.  Erect,  with 
its  foot  on  the  neck  of  hydra  Babylon,  with  its 
open  Bible  and  drawn  sword  shall  Puritanism 
stand,  and  with  pious  all-defiance  victoriously 
front  the  world.  That  was  Oliver  Cromwell's 
appointed  function  in  this  piece  of  sublunary 
space,  in  this  section  of  swift-flowing  time,  that 
noble,  perilous,  painful  function ;  and  he  has 
manfully  done  it,  and  is  now  near  ending  it,  and 
getting  honorably  relieved  from  it." 

In  the  summer  of  1658,  a  sorrow,  falling  close 
on  other  sorrows,  the  deaths  of  Rich  and  of  the 
Earl  of  Warwick,  fell  with  crushing  power  on 
the  heart  of  our  great  hero.  His  eldest  daughter, 
Elizabeth,  Mrs.  Claypole,  fell  sick  at  Hampton 
Court,  and  there  she  died.  In  Thurloe  we  read 
that  for  fourteen  days  Oliver  was  at  her  bedside, 
unable  to  attend  to  any  public  business;  and 
Maidstone  tells  us,  that  "  the  sympathy  of  his 
spirit  with   his  dying  daughter    did    break  him 


OHVEK   CROMWELL. 


(.1  cast  from  the  original  mask  taken  after  (hath,  now  owned  by  Thomas  Woolner,  sculptor 

li  was  given  by  him  to  Thomas  Carlyle,  who  gave  it  in  1S73  to  Charles  Eliot 

Norton,  from  whom  Harvard  College  received  it  in  1881-) 


LATER    DOMESTIC    LIFE.  207 

down."  Strong  and  unmoved  in  the  storms  of 
the  world,  this  father,  clinging  tenderly  to  his 
child  until  she  died,  was  now  prostrated  ;  but 
with  a  broken  heart  and  impaired  health,  he 
attempted  to  resume  his  duties.  It  was  im- 
possible. He  was  directed  by  his  doctors  to 
leave  Hampton  Court  and  go  to  London  ;  but 
the  change  brought  no  benefit,  and  he  died  on 
September  3,  1G58.  "  His  time  was  come,"  wrote 
his  friend  Maidstone,  "  and  neither  prayers  nor 
tears  could  prevail  with  God  to  lengthen  out  his 
life,  and  continue  him  longer  with  us."  We  will 
not  linger  over  the  closing  scene.  We  let  the  cur- 
tain fall  around  his  death-bed  with  the  full  belief 
that  a  whiter  and  purer  spirit  has  seldom  passed 
away  from  earth. 

No  place  in  England  suggests  so  many  buried 
enmities  as  Westminster  Abbey.  Side  by  side 
lie  there  entombed  those  who  in  life  were  deadly 
foes.  We  may  pass  within  those  walls,  over  the 
graves  and  amid  the  monuments  of  warriors, 
statesmen  and  rulers  who  hated  each  other  while 
living,  but  who  now  rest  together  there  in  peace. 
The  time,  we  believe,  will  come  when  the  name 
of  Oliver  Cromwell  will  be  inscribed  in  that 
Temple  with  the  names  of  England's  most 
illustrious  men. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

Of  the  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  Cromwell 
letters  which  Carlyle  has  published,  there  is  but 
one  which  is  dated  before  the  year  1635.  This 
brief  note  is  all  that  remains  of  what  Oliver 
Cromwell  wrote  during  the  first  thirty-six  years 
of  his  life.     It  is  addressed  — 

To  my  approved  good  friend,  Mr.  Henry  Doicn- 
hatt,  at  his  eh  umbers  in  St.  John's  College, 
Cambridge:    These. 

Huntingdon,  14th  October,  1G2G. 
Loving  Sir: 

Make  me  so  much  your  servant  as  to  be  god- 
father  unto  my  child.  I  would  myself  have  come 
over  to  have  made  a  formal  invitation,  but  my 
occasions  would   not    permit   me;    and   therefore 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  209 

hold  me  in  that  excused.  The  day  of  your 
trouble  is  Thursday  next.  Let  me  entreat  your 
company  on  Wednesday.  By  this  time  it  ap- 
pears I  am  more  apt  to  encroach  upon  you  for 
new  favors  than  to  show  you  my  thankfulness 
for  the  love  I  have  already  found.  But  I  know 
your  patience  and  your  goodness  cannot  be 
exhausted  by 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

Of  this  letter,  the  first  in  his  Appendix,  Car- 
lyle says :  "  It  is  of  the  last  degree  of  insignifi- 
cance, a  mere  note  of  invitation  to  Downhall  to 
stand  '  godfather  unto  my  child ; '  man-child,  now 
ten  days  old,  who,  as  we  may  see,  is  christened 
on  Thursday  next  by  the  name  of  Richard."  For 
once  in  his  life  Carlyle  is  wrong.  The  letter,  or 
note,  is  not  insignificant.  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
far  more  worth  commenting  on  than  scores  of  the 
letters  to  which  much  space  is  given.  Carlyle 
was  not  in  good  humor  when  he  wrote  his  Ap- 
pendix. After  his  work  was,  as  he  thought,  fin- 
ished, with  its  hundred  and  fifty-five  letters,  he 
made  a  Supplement,  with  its  fifty-three  letters, 
and  made  it  reluctantly.      He  would  not  re-cast 

his  book  to  admit  new  letters.     "  To  unhoop  your 
14 


210  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

cask  again,"  lie  says,  "and  try  to  insert  new 
staves  when  the  old  ones,  better  or  worse,  do 
already  hang-  together,  no  cooper  will  recom- 
mend." But  after  the  Supplement  came  still 
other  letters,  and  an  Appendix  seemed  necessary. 
This  was  too  much  for  Carlyle's  patience,  and  so 
we  have  the  sarcastic  comments :  "  Mere  note  to 
Downhall,"  "  Man-child  now  ten  days  old  .  .  . 
christened  Richard." 

The  mere  name  of  "  Richard  "  was  enough  to 
put  the  great  elucidator  off  his  balance.  Now 
the  only  letter  known  to  be  in  existence  written 
within  the  first  thirty-six  years  of  the  life  of  so 
remarkable  a  man  as  Oliver  Cromwell,  even  had 
it  no  intrinsic  value,  should  have  had  better 
recognition.  But  the  letter  is  one  worth  notic- 
ing. Few  adepts  at  composition,  in  our  age  of 
culture,  could  write  so  graceful  a  note,  or  put  so 
much  in  so  small  a  compass.  It  throws  much 
light  on  Oliver,  the  young-  farmer.  The  letter 
shows  that  Oliver  is  a  very  busy  man.  lie  has 
not  time  to  travel  the  fifteen  miles  to  Cambridge, 
and  give  a  formal  invitation.  It  shows  that  he 
is  still  in  connection  with  the  Episcopal  Church. 
It  shows  thai  he  has  the  spirit  of  hospitality:  he 
urges  Downhall  to  come  the  day  before  the  bap- 
tism, evidently  wants   to    have  a   good   time  with 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  211 

his  friend.     Favors  received  from  Downhall  are 

acknowledged  in  the  most  delicate  way.  The 
brevity  of  the  letter  is  characteristic  of  the  man 
who  wrote  it.  Seldom  is  so  much  civility,  good 
breeding"  and  courtesy  indicated  within  so  small 
a  space. 

Curiously  enough,  Carlyle  exhausts  himself  in 
his  usual  way  of  all  that  he  knows  about  Down- 
hall.  Tells  how  Downhall  came  of  gentlefolks, 
was  made  a  Fellow  of  St.  John's,  Cambridge, 
on  the  twelfth  of  April,  1G14,  had  known  Oliver 
two  years  after  that,  and  had  probably  been 
helpful  to  him  ;  how,  in  later  years,  he  became 
an  Anti-Puritan  Malignant ;  how,  surviving  the 
restoration,  he  became  Archdeacon  of  Hunting- 
don in  1GG7,  fifty-one  years  after  he  had  lodged 
there  as  Oliver  Cromwell's  guest  and  gossip. 
All  this  is  told,  but  Oliver's  letter,  the  only  ex- 
tant letter  written  before  he  was  thirty-six  years 
old,  preserved  for  more  than  two  hundred  years, 
"  is  of  the  last  degree  of  insignificance."  Richard 
and  the  "  ugly  labor  "  of  the  Appendix  evidently 
disturbed  Carlyle,  and  he  failed  to  see  the  value 
of  the  letter. 

The  next  extant  letter  from  Oliver's  pen  was 
written  nine  years  later,  in  1G35,  and  that  was  a 
letter  written  for  charity,  in  the  interest  of  one 


212  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

Dr.  Wells,  who  seemed  likely  not  to  get  paid  for 
his  preaching. 

The  third  letter  is  given  in  full. 

To  Mr.  Hand  at  Ely  :   These. 

Ely,  IWi  September,  1638. 
Mr.  Hand: 

I  doubt  not  but  I  shall  be  as  good  as  my  word 
for  your  money.  I  desire  you  to  deliver  forty 
shillings  of  the  town  money  to  this  bearer,  to  pay 
for  the  physic  for  Benson's  cure.  If  the  gentle- 
men will  not  allow  it  at  the  time  of  account, 
keep  this  note,  and  I  will  pay  you  out  of  my  own 
purse.     So  I  rest 

Your  loving  friend, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

This  letter  also  is  in  the  Appendix.  Carlyle 
comments :  "  Poor  Benson  is  an  old  invalid. 
Mr.  Hand's  disbursements  for  him  in  183G,  were 
£2.  1.4.  .  .  .  To  Benson  at  divers  times, 
XO.  15.  0."  "Let  him  have  forty  shillings  more, 
and  if  the  gentlemen  won't  allow  it,  Oliver  Crom- 
well will  pay  it  out  of  his  own  purse." 

These  three  letters  were,  witli  one  exception, 
all  that  were  discoverable  fifty  years  ago  by  Car- 
lyle of  a  date  prior  to  1639.     Two  of  the  letters 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  213 

relate  to  charities ;  to  interests  that  were  unself- 
ish, and  the  same  kind  feeling  for  others  which 
is  indicated  in  them  is  a  noticeable  peculiarity 
of  Oliver's  late  life.  His  generosity  no  one  who 
looks  into  his  character,  can  for  a  moment  doubt. 

The  fourth  letter  suggests  the  charge  often 
made  and  even  now  repeated,  that  in  regard  to 
religion  Cromwell  was  a  hypocrite.  The  date  is 
October  13,  1638,  and  the  letter  is  addressed  to 
his  cousin,  Mrs.  St.  John,  the  wife  of  the  great 
barrister.  Within  the  space  of  this  book,  it  is 
impossible  to  give  many  quotations,  or  to  make 
extended  comments  on  the  letters.  Readers 
must  go  to  the  letters  and  Carlyle's  remarks  on 
them,  in  order  to  have  a  real  appreciation  of  the 
man  who  "once  walked  with  God,"  and  whose 
life  was  "  girdled  with  Eternities  and  Godhoods." 
It  must  suffice  to  say  that  this  fourth  letter  of 
Oliver's  came  from  a  soul  full  of  gratitude  to  the 
Almighty,  and  that  nearly  all  the  subsequent 
letters  of  a  domestic  kind,  and  not  a  few  of  the 
letters  relating  to  the  war,  up  to  near  the  end  of 
his  life,  are  written  in  precisely  the  same  spirit. 

Fourteen  and  fifteen  years  later  he  writes,  in 
Whitehall  Palace,  at  a  time  when  Enoland  is  "in 
huge  travail  throes,"  to  his  son-in-law,  Fleetwood, 
commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  in  Ireland,  long 


214  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

letters  which  have  in  them  almost  nothing  but 
piety,  reverence    of    the    Supreme,  and   love  of 
Christ.     From  Edinburgh,  in  1651,  he  writes  to 
his  wife,  "  the  great  good  thy  soul  can  wish  is, 
that  the  Lord  lift  upon  thee    the    light    of    his 
countenauce,  which  is  better  than  life."'     In  an- 
other letter  he  expressed  the  wish  "  to  get  a  heart 
to  love  and  serve  his  Heavenly  Father  better." 
"  Pray  for  me,"  he  says,  "  truly  I  do  daily  for 
thee."        No    hypocrite,     thirty    years    married, 
would  write  in  this  way  to  his  wife  ;  and  what 
possible  advantage  could  come  to  a  man  by  writ- 
ing private  family  letters,  through  a  long  course 
of  years,  about  God  and  the  soul,  if  he  did  not 
believe  in  these  entities?     The  charge  of  hypoc- 
risy is  as  false  as  all  the  other  defamatory  charges. 
But  it  may  be  said  that  Cromwell's  letters  to  his 
wife  prove  nothing  as   to  his  religions  character; 
that  a  man  may  write  piously  to  his  wife,  while 
she  knows   better  than  any  one  else   that  he  is 
playing  a  part ;  but  it  happens,  in  this  ease,  that 
we  know  what  Elizabeth  Cromwell  thought  of  her 
husband   after  she  had  lived  with  him  for  thirty 
years.       It    happens    that   one    letter   which    she 
wrote  to  Oliver  has  been  kept   through   the  cent- 
uries ;   only  one,  dated   December  27,  1G50.      It 
begins   "  My   dearest,"  and   this   passage,   which 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  215 

ought  to  settle  forever  this  hypocrisy  slander,  is 
in  it.  "  I  should  rejoice  to  hear  your  desire  in 
seeing  me,  but  I  desire  to  submit  to  the  Provi- 
dence of  God  ;  hoping-  the  Lord,  who  hath  sepa- 
rated us,  and  hath  often  brought  us  together 
again,  will  in  his  good  time  bring  us  again  to  the 
praise  of  his  name.  Truly,  my  life  is  but  half 
a  life  in  your  absence,  did  not  the  Lord  make  it 
up  in  himself,  which  I  must  acknowledge  to  the 
praise  of  his  grace." 

About  three  months  before  the  writing1  of  this 
letter,  Oliver,  on  the  day  after  the  battle  of  Dun- 
bar, wrote  to  Elizabeth,  and  he  too  begins  with 
"  My  Dearest."  This  letter  is  a  short  one,  and. 
is  given  in  full. 

For  my   beloved   wife,  Elizabeth    Cromwell,  at 

the  Cockpit:   T/iese. 

Dunbar,  4th  September,  1650. 
My  Dearest  : 

I  have  not  leisure  to  write  much.  But  I 
could  chide  thee,  that  in  many  of  thy  letters 
thou  writest  to  me,  that  I  should  not  be  unmind- 
ful of  thee  and  thy  little  ones.  Truly,  if  I  love 
you  not  too  well,  I  think  I  err  not  on  the  other 
hand  much.  Thou  art  dearer  to  me  than  any 
creature  ;  let  that  suffice.      The  Lord  hath  shown 


216  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

us  an  exceeding  mercy ;  who  can  tell  how  great 
it  is.  My  weak  faith  hath  been  upheld.  I  have 
been,  in  my  inward  man,  marvelously  supported, 
though  I  assure  thee  I  grow  an  old  man  and 
feel  the  infirmities  of  age  stealing  upon  me. 
Would  my  corruption  did  as  fast  decrease.  Pray 
on  my  behalf  in  the  latter  respect.  The  particu- 
lars of  our  late  success  Harry  Vane  or  Gilbert 
Pickering  will  impart  to  thee.  My  love  to  all 
dear  friends.     I  rest  thine, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

This  letter  indicates  that  Elizabeth  wrote 
many  letters,  and  that  she  was  rather  disturbed 
that  her  husband  did  not  write  her  oftener.  "  I 
have  not  leisure,"  he  tells  her,  "  to  write  much." 
He  chides  her  for  intimating  that  he  has  been 
unmindful  of  her  and  the  little  ones  ;  "  thou  art 
dearer  to  me  than  any  creature."  lie  has  some 
difficult  work  to  do  in  Scotland,  which  his  wife 
probably  did  not  fully  appreciate. 

Four  or  five  letters  only,  which  passed  between 
this  loving  couple  during  the  nearly  forty  years 
of  their  married  life,  are  all  that  remain;  the 
rest  are  gone.  These  letters  arc  sweet  and 
beautiful. 

When  it  is  stated   that   there  are  of  the  Crom- 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  217 

well  letters  one  hundred  and  four  relating-  to  war, 
twenty  and  more  relating  to  kind  friendly  pur- 
poses or  acts  outside  of  his  family,  that  two  of 
his  letters  to  Richard  can  be  read,  and  that  nine- 
teen of  the  letters,  which  the  patient,  anxious 
father  wrote  about,  or  in  the  interests  of,  this  son, 
have  survived ;  that  there  are  nineteen  letters 
addressed  to  the  Scots,  and  no  small  number 
of  miscellaneous  letters,  it  is  evident  that  a  book 
rather  than  a  chapter  is  needed  in  order  to  do 
justice  to  them.  Of  the  war  letters  nothing-  shall 
be  said  excepting  that  many  writers,  including 
the  royalist,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  have  acquitted 
Cromwell  of  bloodthirstiness.  Cromwell  fouffht 
as  Grant  and  Sherman  and  Lee  fought — to 
effect  an  object ;  not  for  love  of  war. 

The  letters  written  with  a  view  to  conferrin<r 
favors  or  giving  comfort,  must  be  disposed  of 
briefly.  One  is  addressed  to  Thomas  Knyvett, 
asking  him  to  look  after  his  "honest,  poor  neigh- 
bors," who  are  in  some  trouble  and  are  likely  to 
be  put  to  more  by  Robert  Brown,  one  of  Kny- 
vett's  tenants  ;  one  to  Colonel  Walton  askin<»- 
him  to  forget  his  private  sorrow  in  remembering 
that  his  son,  who  had  fallen  in  battle,  is  "  a  saint 
in  Heaven  ;  "  one  is  an  appeal  to  Lord  Fairfax 
for  a  poor  widow,  whose  husband  on  his  death- 


218  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

bed  had  asked  that  "  I  should  befriend  his  wife 
and  children  to  the  Parliament  or  to  your  Ex- 
cellency ;  "  one  is  to  the  keeper  of  the  library 
at  St.  James,  telling-  him  to  let  Sir  Oliver  Eleni- 
ming  have  "  two  or  three  such  books  as  he  shall 
choose  ;  "  one  to  his  worthy  friend  Dr.  Love,  of 
Cambridge,  asking  him  that  he  will  look  out  for 
the  interests  of  Mrs.  Nutting  in  connection  with 
a  lease  ;  one  is  to  the  lion.  William  Lenthall, 
asking  of  the  Parliament  "  justice  and  charity  ': 
for  a  person  whose  estate  has  decayed  by  the 
war;  one  is  to  Colonel  Hacker,  praying  that 
Captain  Empson  may  be  "  lovingly  received," 
and  that  Captain  Hubert,  who  is  to  be  disap- 
pointed in  the  matter  of  an  appointment  in  the 
army  service,  may  be  told  that  "  I  shall  not  be 
unmindful  of  him,"  ami  that  "-no  disrespect  is 
intended  for  him  "  (a  graceful,  kind  thing  for 
Hubert)  ;  one  is  to  secure  an  office  in  a  custom 
house,  "  in  the  customs,"  for  a  young  man  who 
is  "an  object  of  pity,"  and  has  "  poor  parents  ;  " 
another  is  in  the  interest  of  Mr.  Draper,  a 
clergyman  who  wants  to  get  a  parish;  one  is  to 
the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in  behalf  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Turner,  who  the  Protector  thinks  is  a  fit 
person  to  hold  the  vicarage  of  Christ  Church, 
Newgate  Street :   and  one  is  to   Dr.   Greenwood, 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  21C 

Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
requesting-  that  Mr.  Waterhouse  may  have  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  conferred  on  him. 

Rather  a  dull  page  this,  does  the  reader  say ; 
not  one  of  these  names  is  known  to  him  ;  he 
cares  nothing  about  these  persons  ?  Well,  they 
were  living  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  ;  had 
flesh  and  bones  and  feelings,  then :  were  in 
trouble,  had  leases  to  make,  had  sorrows,  felt 
poverty's  keen  touch,  had  lost  property  in  the 
wars,  wanted  to  get  books  out  of  a  library  and 
could  not  get  them  without  an  order,  desired  pro- 
motion in  the  army,  wished  to  get  a  place  in  the 
custom  house,  had  families  to  support,  had  plenty 
of  sermons  but  no  call  to  a  parish,  hoped  for  a 
title  from  a  college,  just  as  men  do  now ;  and 
Oliver  Cromwell  helped  them  ---  helped  them  all ; 
got  them  out  of  their  difficulties,  secured  them 
places  and  support,  befriended  them. 

These  were  a  few  of  the  thousands  of  little 
things  that  occupied  Oliver's  attention  and  drew 
out  his  sympathy  ;  but  they  give  an  idea  of  the 
quality  of  the  man.  He  was  willing  to  put  him- 
self to  the  trouble  of  aiding  those  who  needed 
help  ;  not  a  universal  gift  even  in  these  modern 
enlightened  times  in  which  we  live. 

It  is  remarkable  that  in   all  these  Cromwell 


220  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

letters,  so  many  of  which  were  private  letters, 
and  which,  doubtless,  were  like  thousands  which 
he  wrote,  there  is  not  to  be  found  a  line  indicat- 
ing self-exaltation  ;  not  a  word  to  show  that  he 
thought  himself  to  be  a  man  superior  to  his 
fellows.  In  this  particular  his  correspondence  is 
a  strange  revelation,  and  the  fact  is  the  more 
noticeable  when  we  remember  that  he  was  only 
an  obscure  farmer  until  he  was  more  than  forty 
years  old.  Conscious  of  his  superiority  he  must 
have  been,  but  he  never  reveals  his  knowledge 
of  it. 

To  illustrate  further  Oliver's  character,  an- 
other letter  must  be  given.  A  story  was  started 
that  he  had  concealed  himself  in  his  house  in 
order  to  avoid  the  visits  of  a  gentleman  who  had 
called  on  him.  On  hearing  this  he  wrote  the 
following  letter  : 

To  my   honored  friend,  Anthony   Hungerford, 
Esquire :     These. 

Cockpit,  10^7;  December,  1G52. 

Sir: 

1  understand  by  my  cousin  Dunch  of  so  much 
trouble  of  yours,  and  so  much  unhandsomeness 
(at  least  seeming  so)  on  my  part,  as  doth  not  a 
little  afflict  me,  until  I  give  you   this  account  of 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  221 

my  innocence.  She  was  pleased  to  tell  my  wife 
of  your  often  resorts  to  my  house  to  visit  me, 
and  of  your  disappointments.  Truly,  Sir,  had 
I  but  once  known  of  your  being  there,  and  "  had 
concealed  myself,"  it  had  been  an  action  so  be- 
low a  gentleman  or  an  honest  man,  so  full  of 
ingratitude  for  your  civilities  I  have  received 
from  you,  as  would  have  rendered  me  unworthy 
of  human  society.  Believe  me,  Sir,  I  am  much 
ashamed  that  the  least  color  of  the  appearance  of 
such  a  thing  should  have  happened,  and  I  could 
not  take  satisfaction  but  by  this  plain  dealing 
for  my  justification,  which  I  ingenuously  offer 
you.  And  although  Providence  did  not  dispose 
other  matters  to  our  satisfaction  [referring  per- 
haps to  an  offer  of  marriage  for  Richard]  yet 
your  nobleness  in  that  overture  oblige th  me,  and 
I  hope  ever  shall  while  I  live,  to  study  upon  all 
occasions  to  approve  myself  your  Family's  and 
your 

Most  affectionate  and  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 
My  wife  and  I  desire  our  service  be  presented 
to  your  Lady  and  Family. 

This  letter  was  preserved  in  the  old  chest  of 
Farley  Castle,  the  mansion  of  the  Hungerfords, 


222  CROMWELL   LETTERS. 

and  it  surely  was  worth  keeping.     It  is  a  most 
graceful  apology  for  a  seeming  offense. 

The  letters  which  Oliver  wrote  to  Mr.  Mayor 
and  others,  in  connection  with  Richard's  marriage 
to  Dorothy  Mayor,  are  given  with  their  dates,  and 
a  strange  contrast  they  make  with  the  war  docu- 
ments, with  which,  in  Carlyle's  Cromwell,  they 
are  mingled.  What  Carlyle  thought  of  Richard 
is  here  more  clearly  indicated  than  in  his  remarks 
on  the  invitation  to  the  baptism. 

Oliver  writes  at  London,  April  6,  1649  (  busy 
at  that  time  preparing  for  Ireland),  to  Mr. 
Mayor :  "  My  son  had  a  great  desire  to  come 
down  and  wait  upon  your  daughter.  I  perceive 
he  minds  that  more  than  to  attend  to  business 
here."  Carlyle  puts  a  star  at  the  end  of  this 
sentence,  and  at  the  bottom  of  the  page  the  star 
directs  the  reader  to  his  brief  summing  up  of  his 
opinion  as  to  Richard;  simply  this:  "The  dog." 
Still  Carlyle  gives  all  the  Richard  letters  which 
he  can  lay  his  hands  on  :  and  these  letters,  though 
mainly  relating  to  the  business  parts  of  the  mar- 
riage arrangements,  bring  out  in  striking  ways 
Cromwell's  noble  character. 

A  pari  of  a  letter  sent  to  Mr.  Mayor  some 
time  alter  the  marriage  is  worth  quoting.  We 
ask  the  reader  of  it  who  believes  that  Cromwell 


OLIVETl   CROMWELL. 
[From  11  contemporary  Dutch  engraving.) 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  223 

was  a  canting  hypocrite  to  reflect  on  it,  and  to  ask 
himself  what  possible  motive  the  writer  could  have 
had  for  enlightening  Mr.  Mayor  as  to  his  thoughts 
and  feelings.  The  letter  was  written  for  Mayor, 
and  for  him  alone,  and  Mayor  was  only  a  country 
gentleman  who  could  be  of  no  use  to  Oliver,  ex- 
cept in  friendship.  This  letter  is  in  itself  a  com- 
plete refutation  of  the  charge  of  hypocrisy  which 
stands  now  against  Cromwell  in  hundreds  of  his- 
tories, in  scores  of  poems,  in  not  a  few  novels, 
and  which  has  been  repeated  in  nearly  all  English 
school  history  books  for  two  hundred  years. 

The  letter  is  dated  July  17,  1G50,  and  was 
written  when  Cromwell  was  on  his  way  to  Scot- 
land and  to  Dunbar  battle.  "  You  are  all  often 
in  my  poor  prayers.  .  .  .  Oh  !  how  good  it 
is  to  close  with  Christ  betimes ;  there  is  nothing- 
else  worth  looking  after.  I  beseech  you,  call 
upon  him.  I  hope  you  will  discharge  my  duty 
and  your  own  love.  You  see  how  I  am  employed. 
I  need  pity.  I  know  what  I  feel.  Great  place 
and  business  in  the  world  is  not  worth  the  look- 
ing after.  I  should  have  no  comfort  in  mine, 
but  that  my  hope  is  in  the  Lord's  presence.  I 
have  not  sought  these  things ;  truly  I  have  been 
called  unto  them  by  the  Lord,  and  therefore  am 
not  without  some  assurance  that  he  will  enable 


224  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

his  poor  worm  and  weak  servant  to  do  his  will, 
and  to  fulfill  my  generation.  In  this  I  desire 
your  prayers. 

Your  very  affectionate  brother, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

Has  the  reader  noticed  Cromwell's  way  of 
greeting  his  friends  in  his  letters?  noticed  his 
"loving  sir"  to  Downhall,  his  "affectionate 
brother"  to  Mayor,  and  your  "loving  friend"  in 
the  note  to  Mr.  Hand  about  poor,  sick  Benson  ? 
The  thing  is  worth  noting,  if  one  cares  to  meas- 
ure the  heart  of  the  man.  The  addresses  and 
the  warm  signatures  of  his  letters  alone  are 
enough  to  make  one,  who  prefers  goodness  and 
sweetness  to  greatness,  cling  to  Oliver  and  love 
him. 

Again  and  again,  in  his  speeches  before  Par- 
liament, Oliver  asserted  that  he  had  not  sought 
the  place  he  was  in,  and  here  we  have  in  the 
foregoing  letter  the  same  assertion,  written  just 
after  he  had  been  made  general-in-chief ;  a  letter 
which  John  Dunch,  who  married  Dorothy  Mayor's 
sister  Anne,  found,  with  sixteen  other  letters, 
when  he  was  "groping  about  Hurslev,"  Richard 
Mayor's  home.  These  seventeen  letters  Dunch 
laid  up  in  Pusey,  in  Berkshire,  his  home.     After 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  225 

"  a  century  or  so,  Horace  Walpole,  a  collector  of 
letters,  got  his  eye  on  them,"  and  "  here  they 
still  are  and  continue,"  thanks  to  John  Dunch 
and  Horace  Walpole  and  Thomas  Carlyle. 

There  are  in  the  collection  of  letters  no  Cam- 
bridge letters  to  Oliver's  father,  no  letters  to  his 
mother,  none  to  his  sisters,  or  to  his  daughters, 
excepting  one  to  Bridget  Ireton,  and  there  are 
but  two  addressed  to  his  son  Henry.  Henry  be- 
came Lord  Deputy  in  Ireland,  and  he  held  that 
place  till  the  end  of  the  Protectorate.  Had  he, 
instead  of  his  brother  Richard,  succeeded  his 
father,  Maeaulay's  dream  of  a  permanent  House 
of  Cromwell  might  have  been  a  reality. 

The  two  letters  to  Henry  contain  advice  touch- 
ing the  administration  of  the  Government  in  Ire- 
land.  In  one  of  them  he  writes  :  "  I  do  believe 
there  may  be  some  particular  persons  who  are 
not  very  well  pleased  with  the  present  condition 
of  things,  and  may  be  apt  to  show  their  discon- 
tent as  they  have  opportunity ;  but  this  should 
not  make  too  great  impressions  in  you.  Time 
and  patience  may  work  them  to  a  better  frame 
of  spirit,  and  bring  them  to  see  that  which  for 
the  present  seems  hid  from  them,  especially  if 
they  shall  see  your  moderation  and  love  toward 
them  if  they  are  found  in  other  ways  toward  you, 
15 


226  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

which  I  earnestly  desire  you  to  study  and  en- 
deavor all  that  lies  in  you.  Whereof  both  you 
and  I  shall  have  the  comfort,  whatsoever  the  issue 
and  event  shall  be. 

Your  affectionate  father, 

Oliver  P. 

Not  long  after  the  day  of  Dunbar  a  medalist 
was  sent  by  the  "  Honorable,  the  Committee  of 
the  Army,"  at  London,  to  Edinburgh  to  take  a 
copy  of  Oliver's  face  for  a  medal  commemorative 
of  the  battle.  This  attention  calls  out  a  charac- 
teristic letter. 

Gentlemen  : 

It  was  not  a  little  wonder  to  me  that  you 
should  send  Mr.  Symonds  so  great  a  journey 
about  a  business  importing  so  little,  so  far  as  it 
relates  to  me. 

He  then  suggests  that  the  medal  be  engraved 
with  the  Parliament  on  one  side  and  the  army 
on  the  other,  with  this  inscription  over  the  head 
of  it : 

"'The  Lord  of  Hosts,'  which  was  our  word 
that  day.  Wherefore,  if  I  may  beg  it  as  a 
favor  from  you,  I  most  earnestly  beseech  you, 
if  I  may  do  it  without  offense,  that  it  may  be 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  227 

so.  And  if  you  think  not  fit  to  have  it  as  I 
offer,  you  may  alter  it  as  you  see  cause ;  only  I 
do  think  I  may  truly  say  it  will  be  very  thankfully 
acknowledged  by  me  if  you  will  spare  the  having 
my  effigies  in  it."  And  he  ends  his  letter  by 
kindly  saying  that  the  "pains  and  trouble  of  Mr. 
Symonds  in  making  the  long  journey  have  been 
very  great ;  "  that  Mr.  Symonds  is  "  ingenious 
and  worthy  of  encouragement,"  and  asking  that 
they  will  please  confer  upon  him  "  that  employ- 
ment which  Nicolas  Briot  had  before  him." 
Cromwell's  face  on  a  medal  does  not  appear  to 
interest  him  in  the  slightest  degree;  but  he 
wishes  the  poor  medalist  to  secure  some  steady 
remunerative  business.  A  remarkable  letter  this 
for  a  great  general  to  write,  but  it  is  in  harmony 
with  his  entire  public  and  private  life,  so  far  as 
that  life  is  revealed  by  his  other  letters,  and  by 
the  charities  in  which  he  is  known  to  have  had 
a  part. 

There  are  two  noteworthy  letters  to  Cardinal 
Mazarin,  the  minister  of  Louis  XIV.  The  first 
is  dated  June  9,  1653. 

Sir: 

I  have  been  surprised  that  Your  Eminency  was 
pleased  to  remember  a  person  so  inconsiderable 


228  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

as  myself,  living,  as  it  were,  withdrawn  from  the 
rest  of  the  world. 

Sir,  Your  Eminency's 

Most  humble  servant, 

Oliver  Cromwell. 

Some  six  weeks  before  Cromwell  had  broken 
up  the  Long  Parliament,  and  three  days  before  he 
issued  his  summons  ("  that  the  peace,  safety  and 
S'ood  government  of  the  Commonwealth  should 
be  provided  for  ")  to  the  one  hundred  and  forty 
Puritan  notables  "  to  whom  the  great  charge  and 
trust  of  so  weighty  affairs  is  to  be  committed." 

In  the  speech  which  he  made  to  the  notables 
who  formed  what  has  been  called  the  "Little 
Parliament,"  he  says  that  he  had  done  what  "  we 
have  done  .  .  .  not  to  grasp  at  the  power 
ourselves,  or  keep  it  in  military  hands,  no,  not 
for  a  day;  but  as  far  as  God  enabled  us  with 
strength  and  ability,  to  put  it  into  the  hands  of 
proper  persons  that  might  be  called  from  the 
several  parts  of  the  nation."  At  the  end  of  the 
speech  he  tells  the  members  that  his  council  of 
officers  have  "  no  authority  or  continuance  of  sit- 
ting except  simply  until  you  take  further  orders." 
These  transactions  and  these  assertions  throw- 
light  on  the  letter  to  Cardinal  Mazarin. 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  229 

The  Lord  General,  as  Carlyle  says,  "struggles 
to  look  upon  himself  as  a  man  that  has  done  with 
political  affairs."  He  is  a  person  "inconsider- 
able, living  as  it  were  withdrawn  from  the  rest 
of  the  world  "  -from  P^uropean  politics,  as  well 
as  from  public  service  in  England.  Often,  in 
his  later  speeches,  does  the  Protector  refer  to  this 
period  of  his  life,  when  he  hoped  to  be  able  to 
retire  from  employments  under  the  Government. 

The  second  letter  to  the  cardinal  is  dated 
December  26,  1656.  Cromwell  is  now  Protector. 
He  has  widened  his  views  somewhat.  He  is  not 
the  man  which  the  Spanish  Armada,  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  the  misgovernment  of  James  I.  and 
Charles  I.  had  made  him  when  he  came  up  to 
the  Parliament  of  1640.  He  will  take  under  his 
protection  Jews,  Anabaptists,  Episcopalians  and 
even  Romanists,  provided  they  do  not  interfere 
with  his  police  work  of  keeping  Prince  Charles 
out  of  England.  He  now  writes  to  Cardinal 
Mazarin  that  under  his  government  the  Catholics 
have  less  reason  for  complaint  than  they  had 
under  the  Parliament.  He  has  "  plucked  many 
out  of  the  fire;  "  and  it  is  his  purpose  to  make  a 
"  further  progress  "  as  to  toleration. 

There  are  five  letters  written  by  Cromwell, 
and   perhaps    more,  which  crossed  the  Atlantic 


230  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

and  have  been  preserved :  one  to  Rev.  John  Cot- 
ton ;  one  to  "  our  trusty  and  well  beloved,  the 
president,  assistants  and  inhabitants  of  Rhode 
Island,  together  with  the  rest  of  the  Providence 
plantations  in  the  Narragansett  Bay  in  New 
England  :  "  one  to  Captain  John  Leverett,  com- 
mander of  the  forts  lately  taken  from  the  French 
in  America ;  one  to  the  Commissioners  of  Mary- 
land; one  to  Richard  Bennet,  Esquire,  Governor 
of  Virginia.  To  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Boston,  he  writes:  ''Truly  I  am 
ready  to  serve  you  and  the  rest  of  your  brethren 
and  churches  with  you." 

The  letter  to  Rhode  Island  is  an  answer  to  the 
request  of  its  agent,  asking  that  some  particulars 
about  the  government  may  be  settled.  The  Pro- 
tector answers  politely  that  he  will  attend  to  the 
matter  when  he  has  time  ;  in  the  meanwhile 
"  you  are  to  proceed  in  your  government  accord- 
ing to  the  tenor  of  your  charter."  To  Captain 
Leverett  he  writes  :  "  to  defend  and  keep  the 
French  forts,  which  Major  Sedgwick  lias  land 
hold  of"  in  the  region  now  called  Nova  Scotia, 
then  called  Arcadie  ;  of  which  forts  and  of  the 
region  which  they  commanded  it  is  Oliver's  pur- 
pose, for  the  benefit  of  his  New  Euglanders, 
to  retain   possession.     To  the  Commissioners  of 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  231 

Maryland  he  writes  in  the  way  of  apology. 
Previous  letters,  he  says,  were  "  not  intended  to 
stop  the  proceedings  of  these  commissioners,  who 
were  authorized  to  settle  the  civil  government  of 
Maryland."  That  was  "  not  at  all  intended  by 
us.  .  .  .  Our  intention  was  only  to  prevent 
and  forbid  any  force  or  violence  to  be  offered 
by  either  of  the  plantations  of  Virginia  or  Mary- 
land from  one  to  the  other  upon  the  differences 
concerning  their  bounds,  the  said  differences  be- 
ing then  under  the  consideration  of  ourself  and 
council  here."  To  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
he  writes  requiring  him  to  forbear  disturbing- 
Lord  Baltimore,  or  his  officers  or  people  in 
Maryland,  and  to  "  permit  all  things  to  remain  as 
they  were  before  any  disturbance  or  alterations 
made  by  you  or  by  any  other,  upon  pretense  of 
authority  from  you,  till  the  said  differences  be 
determined  by  us  here,  and  we  give  further  order 
therein."  Cromwell  wrote  also  to  the  colonies  of 
Connecticut,  but  those  letters  are  lost.  The  pur- 
port of  some  of  them  may,  however,  be  inferred 
from  other  letters  which  have  been  preserved. 

It  was  known  in  Connecticut  that  Oliver  had 
the  purpose  to  remove  such  colonists  as  were  dis- 
satisfied in  New  England  to  a  better  place  and 
climate.     A  letter,  yet  unpublished,  was  written 


232  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

in  1654,  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Higginson  of  Guilford, 
Conn.,  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Thacher  of  Weymouth, 
Mass.,  relating  to  a  removal.  The  letter  gives  a 
dark  and  gloomy  picture  of  the  prospects  in  New 
England.  Although  no  letter  written  by  Crom- 
well is  now  to  be  found  in  the  Connecticut  ar- 
chives, there  has  been  published  by  Carlyle  a  letter 
which  indicates  the  Protector's  wishes  in  this 
matter  of  a  removal.  The  letter  is  dated  Octo- 
ber, 1655,  and  is  addressed  to  Daniel  Searle, 
Governor  of  Barbadoes.  The  Protector  instructs 
the  governor  to  remove  the  people  of  Barbadoes 
to  Jamaica  "  where  we  have  twenty  men-of-war," 
and  where  "  we  hope  the  Plantation  will  not  be 
wanting  in  anything.  .  .  .  We  have  also 
sent  to  the  colonies  of  New  England  like  offers 
with  yours,  to  remove  thither,  our  resolution  be- 
ing to  people  and  plant  that  island."  The  scheme, 
so  far  as  it  related  to  the  New  England  colonists, 
happily,  did  not  mature.  That  beautiful  island, 
about  as  large  as  the  State  of  Connecticut,  would 
have  furnished  rather  narrow  quarters  even  for 
the  few  settlers  of  the  colonies,  and  it  hardly 
would  have  sufficed  for  the  descendants  of  the 
Puritans.  Better,  too,  was  New  England,  with 
its  granite  and  its  climate,  than  Jamaica  with  its 
alluvial  soil,  and  its  warm  breezes. 


CROMWELL    LETTERS.  233 

These  five  or  six  letters  bring  Cromwell  be- 
fore us  under  new  aspects.  They  indicate  that 
he  had  the  industry  for  which  Lord  Clarendon 
gives  him  credit ;  that  he  did  not,  like  most  of 
the  English  rulers  from  James  I.  to  George  111., 
have  the  inclination  to  disturb  the  colonists,  and 
that  he  took  a  real  interest  in  their  welfare. 

In  his  "Prince  Rupert  and  the  Cavaliers," 
Eliot  Warburton,  in  allusion  to  the  discovery  of 
the  letters  of  Charles  I.  at  Naseby,  says,  if  the 
letters  of  the  "  dark  and  crafty  "  Cromwell  could 
be  seen,  how  would  he  stand  in  comparison  ? 
Now,  it  happened  that  Carlyle,  at  the  time  when 
Warburton  was  writing  his  book,  was  gathering- 
all  that  he  could  find  of  the  letters  of  Cromwell. 
He  gathered  more  than  two  hundred  letters, 
covering  a  period  of  about  thirty  years ;  and  in 
not  one  of  these  letters  can  a  line  be  found  in 
support  of  Warburton's  contemptible  insinua- 
tions. On  the  contrary,  the  letters  show,  for 
kindnesses  done,  for  charities,  for  scrupulous 
thought  in  business  matters,  for  devotion  to  dis- 
tasteful but  necessary  work,  a  record  which  it 
would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  equal  by 
the  disclosure  of  an  equal  number  of  letters 
written  by  the  statesmen,  or  rulers,  or  philan- 
thropists  now  living  in   the   Christian   States  of 


234  CROMWELL    LETTERS. 

America.  So  far  from  showing,  as  Warburton 
believed  they  would  show,  that  Oliver  was  "-dark 
and  crafty,"  they  prove  beyond  a  doubt  that  in 
all  the  relations  of  life  he  was  guided  by  truth, 
virtue,  generosity  and  the  noblest  piety.  No 
man  outside  of  a  royalist  insane  asylum  can  read 
those  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  letters  and 
not  find  in  them  all  that  belongs  to  a  high  and 
pure  character.  They  reveal  simplicity,  modesty, 
complete  disregard  of  self,  deep  interest  in  others, 
goodness  of  all  kinds,  largeness  and  nobleness  of 
soul.  Not  a  mean  thing,  nor  an  unjust  one,  can 
be  found.  Courtesy,  delicacy  equal  to  a  woman's, 
love,  all  good  qualities  can  be  found  in  them  ; 
not  one  bad  one,  or  the  intimation  of  a  bad  one- 
The  greatest  ruler  of  the  seventeenth  century 
was  also  the  best  and  the  noblest  of  the  sover- 
eigns who,  in  that  age,  governed  Europe. 


CHAPTER  X. 


CHARACTER. 


The  only  positive  evidence,  within  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  writer  of  this  book,  adverse  to  the 
good  character  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  is  found  in 
the  registry  of  the  parish  church  at  Huntingdon  ; 
and  this  evidence,  having  apparently  escaped  the 
observation  of  royalists  for  two  hundred  years 
and  more,  was  discovered  by  the  Rev.  Phillips 
Brooks,  now  the  Bishop  of  Massachusetts,  who 
a  few  years  ago,  while  looking  for  the  record  of 
Oliver's  baptism,  found  also  a  record  which 
proves  beyond  a  doubt  that  our  hero  did  sonic- 
thing  wrong,  and  was  in  some  way  punished,  in 
the  year  1G16,  when  he  was  seventeen  years  old. 
This  offense,  which  in  a  previous  chapter  has 
been  alluded  to  as  one  which  should  not  leave  a 
permanent    stain    on   his  memory,  stands  alone 


236  CHARACTER. 

among  the  charges  unfavorable  to  Oliver's  mem- 
ory supported  by  evidence. 

Other  adverse  charges  are  these :  the  pranks 
of  boyhood,  which  need  not  detain  us,  and  dissi- 
pation in  early  life.  These  are  all,  excepting 
that  of  cruelty  in  Ireland,  which  has  been 
alleged  by  contradictory  and  untrustworthy  roy- 
alist writers,  and  denied  by  those  friendly  to 
the  Protector.  Oliver's  letters  to  the  Irish 
people  are  a  sufficient  vindication.  The  charge 
of  dissipation  rests  mainly  on  a  few  lines  which 
Oliver  wrote  to  a  cousin  when  he  was  thirty-nine 
years  old,  in  which  he  tells  her  that  he  had 
"  loved  darkness,"  and  had  been  "  the  chief  of 
sinners  ;  "  a  strong  way  of  stating  his  condition 
before  conversion.  There  is  not,  so  far  as  we 
can  learn,  the  slightest  evidence  to  prove  that 
Oliver  was  ever  dissipated,  either  in  youth  or  in 
his  after  life:  not  the  slightest  evidence  that 
there  was  a  stain  on  him,  from  his  early  years 
up  to  the  time  when,  at  about  the  age  of  forty, 
lie  ceased  to  be  a  farmer,  with  the  exception  of 
the  record  in  the  book  of  the  parish  church  at 
Huntingdon. 

Oliver  was  brought  up  in  a  Low  Church  Epis- 
copal family,  and  had  such  a  family  the  slightest 
chance,  in    James's  time,  for   peace  and  quiet  in 


CHARACTER.  237 

its  worship,  lie  might  have  remained  all  through 
his  life  a  good  farmer  Low  Churchman,  and  slept 

at  last  "  guiltless  of  his  country's  Mood/'  in  the 
graveyard  of  the  old  parish  in  which  he  was 
baptized.  Who  knows  what  influence  Laud's 
appointment  as  Archdeacon  of  Huntingdon  had 
over  him  ?  Who  knows  but  that  record  of 
"  discipline "  in  the  old  parish  book  may  have; 
changed  the  course  of  Oliver's  life,  and  with  it 
the  course  of  English  history? 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  quotations  in 
the  first  chapter  of  this  book  from  royalist 
writers  contained  no  proofs  of  wickedness,  or 
attempts  at  proofs  ;  contained  only  assertions  or 
intimations  of  wickedness.  Not  one  fact  is  given 
by  Cleaveland,  or  Clarendon,  or  other  royalist 
writers  in  support  of  the  infamous  titles  and 
names  which  they  attach  to  the  Protector. 
These  writers  simply  published  their  opinions, 
gave  their  impressions,  told,  and  perhaps  hon- 
estly, what  they  thought  of  Cromwell  ;  but  in 
what  they  say  there  are  no  facts  to  show  that 
he  was  the  kind  of  man  whom  they  represent 
him  to  have  been.  They  brand  him  with  scur- 
rilous names,  and  that  is  all.  lie  is,  in  their 
view,  a  "bankrupt,"  "a  hypocrite,"  "a  religious 
whiffler,"  "  a  mountebank  of  State,"   "  a  veiled 


238  CHARACTER. 

devil,"  "a  subtle  bloodsucker/'  and  "  a  canni- 
bal." One  of  them,  it  will  be  remembered,  says 
that  lie  had  all  the  wickednesses  against  which 
damnation  is  denounced,  and  for  which  hell  fire 
is  prepared,  but  they  relate  nothing  about  him  to 
substantiate  this  abuse,  nothing  to  verify  their 
allegations.  Not  an  event  of  his  private  life  is 
given  for  proof ;  not  one  fact  is  alluded  to,  save 
those  public  acts  which  the  greatest  and  best 
men  of  England  shared  with  him,  and  to  which 
Milton,  both  in  prose  and  poetry,  gave  not 
only  his  sanction  but  his  unlimited  and  warm 
approval. 

Some  of  these  vituperative  writers,  it  must  be 
remembered,  had  praised  the  Protector  while  he 
was  living,  or  soon  after  he  was  dead ;  they  had 
placed  him  among  the  supreme  men  of  this 
earth  ;  had  admitted  him  to  a  Pantheon ;  the 
censure  was  an  after  thought  —  an  offering  to  His 
Sacred  Majesty,  the  king.  It  was  not  to  be  ex- 
pected that  justice  would  be  done  to  Cromwell  by 
royalists  in  the  age  of  Charles  II. ;  but  it  was  not 
required  of  them  so  to  defame  him  by  lies  as  to 
shut  him  off  from  all  sympathy  for  two  hundred 
years.  Other  Puritans  have  had  their  offenses 
forgiven.  Milton,  the  Protector's  secretary  and 
eulogist,    has    his    place    in    the    great    Abbey. 


CHARACTER.  239 

Hampden  has  his  statue  in  St.  Stephen's  Hall ; 
Eliot  and  Pym  are  kindly  remembered, but  "our 
poor  Oliver  seems  to  hang  yet  on  the  gibbet,  and 
find  no  hearty  apologist  anywhere."  Is  it  not 
strange,  says  Carlyle,  that  after  all  the  mountains 
of  calumny  this  man  has  been  subject  to,  after 
being  represented  as  the  Prince  of  Liars,  who 
never,  or  hardly  ever,  spoke  truth,  but  always 
some  cunning  counterfeit  of  truth,  there  should 
not  yet  have  been  one  falsehood  brought  clearly 
home  to  him  ?  "  A  prince  of  liars,  and  no  lie 
spoken  by  him  !  " 

We  have  quoted,  in  the  first  chapter,  from 
writers  who  defamed  Cromwell ;  we  now  give  a 
few  excerpts  from  those  who  wrote  in  his  praise. 

The  first  is  taken  from  John  Banks's  book,  a 
panegyric  presented  to  the  Protector  by  the 
Portuguese  ambassador,  "  written  as  pretended 
by  a  learned  Jesuit,  His  Excellency's  chaplain, 
but  as  more  probably  supposd  by  the  celebrated 
John  Milton."  "  I  persuaded  myself  that  you 
either  equaled,  or  at  least  came  nearer  to,  than 
any  other,  the  image  of  a  perfect  hero. 
A  nobility  pure,  free  from  all  vanity,  from  all 
meanness,  luxury,  hautiness,  vaunting  of  itself, 
clear,  virtuous,  brave,  industrious.  .  .  .  Such 
a  nobility  as  this,  most  illustrious  Cromwell,  we 


240  CHARACTER. 

have  found  to  be  yours,  pure,  solid,  true,  open, 
clear.  .  .  .  You  have  given  us  such  a  speci- 
men of  your  capacity  that  you  may  make  it 
appear,  if  you  was  (sic)  disposed  to  go  on  in  the 
pursuit  of  learning,  how  very  able  you  are  to 
equal  the  greatest  masters,  just  as  Julius  Cassar 
did,  whose  step  you  so  nearly  tread  in. 
Cincinnatus  lived  not  more  innocenthv,  Sen-anus 
not  more  incorruptly,  Cato  not  more  justly. 
Nor  did  you  thrust  yourself  into 
honors,  except  only  when  the  fortunes  of  the 
Commonwealth  required  your  assistance.  .  .  . 
You  was  (sic)  dragged  to  dignities  by  a  sort 
of  violence.  .  .  .  Discerning,  ready,  judi- 
cious, valiant,  deliberative,  expeditious,  sagacious, 
crafty,  careful,  attentive,  you  foresaw  every 
accident,  prevented  the  meditated  blow,  dared 
the  greatest  danger,  eluded  the  most  artful  strat- 
agem, embraced  and  improved  every  opportunity. 
Like  lightning  you  struck  before  the  thunder  was 
heard.  Great  in  fortitude  as  in  council,  you 
weighed  the  hazards  of  war,  as  if  you  feared 
them  :  you  went  through  them  as  though  you 
despised  them.  Before  danger  wary,  in  it  un- 
daunted. You  arrogated  nothing  to  yourself; 
you  detracted  nothing  from  others.  The  actions 
you  demanded    for  your  own  part  ;   but  left  the 


CHARACTER.  241 

fame  of  them  to  your  fellows;  the  danger  was 
yours,  the  glory  theirs.  .  .  .  The  magna- 
nimity of  Alexander,  the  valor  of  Camillus,  the 
constancy  of  Scipio,  the  force  of  Caesar,  the 
skill  of  Belisarius,  the  fortitude  of  Scanderbeg, 
the  violence  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  all  unite  in 
you ;  you  excel  all  of  them  in  that  wherein  they 
most  excel.  .  .  .  You  first  brought  religion 
into  the  army,  and  taught  your  soldiers  to  war 
most  against  vices  and  irregular  desires.  No 
general  was  ever  more  tender  of  his  soldiers  than 
you.  You  watched  carefully  against  all  their 
inconveniences  and  inquired  into  their  necessi- 
ties." Such  was  one  estimate  of  Cromwell  two 
hundred  years  ago. 

We  now  give  a  small  part  of  John  Maidstone's 
letter  to  Governor  Winthrop,  which  was  written 
in  1659.  Maidstone  knew  Cromwell  well : 
knew  him  intimately,  revered  and  loved  him. 
He  writes  that  the  Protector  had  a  head  which 
was  a  vast  storehouse,  "  a  vast  treasury  of  nat- 
ural parts ;  "  that  his  temper  was  exceedingly 
fiery,  but  that  the  flame  of  it  was  kept  down  or 
soon  allayed  by  his  moral  endowments  ;  that  he 
was  naturally  compassionate  toward  objects  in 
distress,  even  to  an  effeminate  degree  ;  that  he 

did  exceed  in  tenderness  toward  sufferers.      "  A 
1G 


242  CHARACTER. 

larger  soul,'"  writes  Maidstone,  "  bath  seldom 
dwelt  in  a  house  of  clay  than  his  was.  I  do 
believe,  if  his  story  were  impartially  transmitted 
and  the  unprejudiced  world  well  possessed  with 
it,  she  would  add  him  to  her  nine  worthies,  and 
make  that  number  deccm-viriP 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Hooker,  once  a  minister  at  New 
Haven,  went  to  England  in  1G56.  He  became 
Oliver's  chaplain.  In  a  letter  to  Governor  Win- 
throp  dated  April  13,  1657,  he  writes  :  "  The 
Protector  is  urged  utrinque  "  (about  that  king- 
ship matter)  "  and  I  am  ready  to  think  willing 
enough  to  betake  himself  to  private  life,  if  it 
might  be.  .  .  .  He  is  a  godly  man,  much 
in  prayer  and  good  discourses,  delighting  in  good 
men  and  good  ministers,  self-denying  and  ready 
to  promote  any  good  work  for  Christ."  Mark, 
leader,  that  this  testimony  conies  from  one  who 
knew  Oliver  near  the  end  of  his  life,  when  it  is 
commonly  thought  he  had  lost  what  little  piety, 
and  even  affectation  of  piety,  he  had  had  in  his 
earlier  life. 

Milton  hails  the  Protector  as  the  savior  of 
England.  lie  salutes  him  as  men  in  our  times 
have  saluted  Washington.  lie  calls  him  not 
only  "the  chief  of  men,"  but,  what  is  better, 
eal]s  him  "the  father  of  his  country."     "This," 


OLIVER   C'HOMWET.L. 
{From  the  celebrated  print  by  W.  Faithorne,  London.) 


CHARACTER.  243 

Milton  says,  "  is  the  tender  appellation  by  which 
all  the  good  among-  us  salute  you  from  the  very 
soul  ; "  and  he  closes  a  calm,  just  eulogy  in 
these  words :  "  While  you,  O  Cromwell,  are  left 
amoug  us,  he  hardly  shows  a  proper  confidence 
in  the  Supreme  who  distrusts  the  security  of 
England." 

A  courtier  from  the  court  of  Charles  II.,  from 
Clarendon  down  to  Bates,  was  not  competent  to 
measure  Cromwell.  ' 

It  is  with  peculiar  pleasure  that  we  give  our 
readers  the  views  of  Samuel  R.  Gardiner,  author 
of  the  "  History  of  the  Great  Civil  War."  Mr. 
Gardiner  says  that  "  in  forming  a  judgment  on 
Cromwell  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  take  Car- 
lyle's  monumental  work  as  a  starting-point.  Ev- 
ery satisfactory  effort  to  understand  the  character 
of  a  man  must  be  based  on  his  own  spoken  and 
written  words,  though  it  is  always  possible  to 
throw  further  light  and  shade  from  other  sources." 
My  comment  on  this  is,  at  the  risk  of  repetition, 
that  there  is  not  a  line  in  any  one  of  the  Crom- 
well letters,  nor  a  word  in  any  one  of  the 
Cromwell  speeches,  which  an  advocate  for  his 
pure  and  noble  character  would  wish  to  have 
erased.  Warburton's  "  dark  and  crafty  "  hypo- 
crite is  undiscoverable  in  the  letters  and  speeches. 


244  CHARACTER. 

After  subjecting  the  writings  of  Cromwell's 
enemies,  which  are  "  to  the  last  degree  unfavor- 
able to  his  uprightness  of  character,  to  the  first 
rules  of  criticism  "  (the  words  are  Gardiner's), 
this  historian  says  :  "  It  was  with  no  little  sur- 
prise that  I  found  one  charge  after  another  melt 
away,  as  I  was  able  to  fix  a  date  to  the  words  or 
actions  which  had  given  rise  to  hostile  comments. 
Thus  tested,  the  Cromwell  of  Lilburne  and  Wild- 
mali  shows  himself  the  same  man  as  the  Cromwell 
of  his  letters  and  the  Clarke  papers ;  no  divinely 
inspired  hero,  indeed,  or  faultless  monster,  but  a 
brave  honorable  man,  striving  according  to  his 
lights  to  lead  his  countrymen  into  the  paths  of 
peace  and  godliness." 

These  words  were  written  by  Gardiner  after  he 
had  spent  seven  years  in  his  investigations  ;  a 
much  longer  time  than  Carlyle  spent  on  his  work 
of  Oliver. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Carlyle,  fifty  years 
a«-o,  did  not  know  what  he  would  make  of  Oliver, 
what  kind  of  a  man  he  would  find  him  to  have 
been;  and  now,  one  of  the  most  prominent 
English  historians  expresses  his  surprise  to  find 
the  charges  against  the  Protector  "  melt  away," 
and  reveal  Oliver  as  not  only  brave  but  honor- 
able, and  "  leading  his  countrymen  into  the  paths 


CHARACTER.  245 

a 

of  godliness."  Rather  remarkable  testimony  tins 
as  to  Oliver's  moral  character  !  This  historian 
also  says  that  after  the  war  was  ended  Cromwell 
clung-  with  pertinacity  to  the  old  institutions  of 
the  realm  ;  that  it  was  Goffe  more  than  Cromwell 
who  proposed  prayer  meetings  -  that  Oliver 
called  for  committees  ;  that  "  among  those  who 
desired  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  king,  Cromwell 
is  undoubtedly  to  be  reckoned  ;  "  that  in  a  speech 
three  hours  long  he  held  the  attention  of  the 
House,  pleading  the  cause  of  monarchy  and  urg- 
ing the  Parliament  to  re-establish  the  throne,  as- 
serting  that  it  had  been  his  aim  during  the  whole 
war  to  strengthen  and  not  destroy  monarchy ; 
that  he  would  have  Charles  to  be  king  as  William 
III.  was  afterward  a  king  ;  but  that  was  a  con- 
dition to  which  Charles  would  not  stoop.  "  But 
the  time  came,"  says  Gardiner,  "  when  Cromwell 
found  that  all  his  efforts  in  the  king's  behalf 
were  thrown  away."  Baffled  by  the  House  of 
Commons  and  unsupported  by  Charles,  Crom- 
well's mediatory  position  became  untenable. 

In  the  army  Cromwell  was  now  denounced  as  a 
mere  time-server,  bent  upon  currying  favor  with 
Charles  in  pursuit  of  his  own  private  interests. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  Cromwell  himself  wrote 
these  words  :   "  Though  it  may  be,  for  the  present, 


246  CHARACTER. 

a  cloud  may  lie  over  our  actions  to  those  who  are 
not  acquainted  with  the  grounds  of  them,  yet  we 
doubt  not  but  that  God  will  clear  our  integrity 
and  innocency  from  any  other  ends  we  aim  at 
but  his  glory  and  the  public  good." 

There  is  one  writer  whom  we  cannot  pass  by, 
especially  when  we  recall  the  animadversions  of 
Guizot.  Carlyle's  Cromwell  seems  instantly  to 
have  made  H.  A.  Taine,  one  of  the  ablest  thinkers 
and  writers  of  our  day,  a  believer  in  Cromwell  as 
a  man  "  struck  by  the  idea  of  duty."  The  view 
of  this  great  Frenchman  is  wholly  different  from 
that  of  Louis  Philippe's  minister.  Taine  has 
discovered  a  hero  worth  recovering  and  bringing 
into  sight ;  a  noble  heart  beneath  the  rugged 
crust  of  Puritanism ;  a  man  with  definite  in- 
stincts and  faculties ;  English  to  the  core ;  a 
great  soul  like  one  of  Shakespeare's.  Taine  sees 
that  Carlyle  has  unearthed  one  of  the  noblest 
men  of  past  centuries  ;  that  Cromwell  has  risen 
from  the  dead  ;  that  one  can  know  now  what  he 
felt,  suffered  and  wished ;  that  he  stands  on 
things  and  not  on  the  show  of  things  :  that  he  is 
a  reality  and  not  the  harlequin  of  Charles's  cour- 
tiers;  that  at  last,  we  are  '•'face  to  face"  with 
Cromwell;  that  we  have  his  words,  that  we  hear 
his  tone  of  voice,  and  that  now  we  "are   firmly 


CHARACTER.  '2-iJ 

planting  our  feet  upon  the  truth."  Cromwell 
eomes  forth  to  Taine's  eye  reformed  and  renewed. 
He  quits  his  French  ideas  and  finds  this  grand 
sentiment  in  Cromwell,  "am  I  a  just  man?" 
He  tells  us  that  Oliver  believed  in  a  sublime  and 
terrible  God ;  that  how  to  worship  him  was  not 
a  trifling'  thing. 

In  making  an  estimate  of  the  man,  we  call 
upon  our  readers  to  note,  in  the  first  place,  the 
complete  absence  of  all  positive  bad  qualities. 
You  may  search  all  the  books  about  him  from 
Bates  and  Dugdale  down,  all  histories,  poems, 
school  text  books,  all  his  speeches  and  letters, 
and  you  cannot  discover  that  he  had  at  any  time 
of  his  life  one  evil  thought  or  purpose.  To  assert 
that  he  went  through  his  nearly  sixty  years  free 
from  evil  thoughts,  would  be  absurd  ;  but  we 
do  assert  that  no  royalist  has  shown  or  can  show 
a  single  deed  emanating  from  a  wicked  purpose. 
Temper  he  had,  and  he  had  use  for  it ;  but  apart 
from  temper,  such  as  was  shown  in  the  fen 
drainage  business,  and  in  breaking  up  the  Long 
Parliament,  it  is  impossible  for  any  defamer  to 
prove  that  he  had  any  moral  weakness  or 
infirmity. 

Buckle  has  remarked  that  only  "  two  other 
men  have  done  what  Oliver  succeeded   in   doing; 


248  CHARACTER. 

only  Julius  Csesar  and  Napoleon  I. ;  these  three 
alone  have  combined  great  soldiership  with  suc- 
cessful statesmanship." 

We  do  not  wish  to  linger  over  a  statement 
like  this.  It  awakens  no  emotions  or  pleasant 
thoughts. 

One  epithet  to  he  found  in  Canon  Kingsley's 
writings,  "  dear  old  Oliver  Cromwell,"  is  of  more 
value  than  this  praise  from  the  author  of  the 
"History  of  Civilization."  It  is  not  Oliver's 
greatness  which  interests  us.  We  have  said  little 
about  that  in  these  pages  ;  we  care  to  say  but 
little  about  it.  It  is  not  the  great  whom  we 
cling  to  ;  it  is  the  good,  the  true,  the  noble,  the 
pure,  the  kind,  the  loving.  Cromwell's  elevation 
from  a  farming  life  to  the  rank  of  the  world's 
conquerors,  and  to  a  place  by  the  side  of  kings, 
inspires  no  particular  sympathy  for  him  ;  it  is 
the  man  himself,  the  deep  clear  soul  of  him  ;  it 
is  the  whiteness  of  his  character ;  it  is  the  heart 
beneath  the  rough  form,  which  nearly  three  hun- 
dred years  ago  moved  about  in  the  poor  house  of 
Ely ;  it  is  the  hand  which  penned  the  note  for 
poor  sick  Benson  ;  it  is  the  eye  which  glistened 
so  often  with  sorrowful  tears  when  it  saw  distress 
and  want ;  it  is  the  gratitude,  the  kindliness,  the 
friendship,  the  desire  Eor  social  life,  which  indited 


CHARACTER.  249 

the  letter  to  Downhall ;  it  is  the  craving  to  set; 
and  embrace  his  "Biddy"  who  was  far  off  in 
Ireland  ;  it  is  the  soldier  who  could  find  pleasure 
in  hearing  that  his  children  are  having  a  good 
time  in  the  June  days  under  cherry-trees,  while 
he,  the  father,  is  on  his  way  to  the  wars  ;  it  is 
the  philanthropy  which  instructed  Mr.  Knyvett 
not  to  allow  his  tenant  Brown  to  "trouble 
honest  poor  neighbors  ; "  it  is  the  warrior  sitting 
in  his  tent  writing  to  a  bereaved  father  that  his 
son  is  "  a  saint  in  heaven  ;  '  it  is  Oliver  plead- 
ing for  a  poor  widow  whose  husband,  on  his  death- 
bed, had  asked  his  thought  and  care  ;  Oliver,  the 
advocate  of  justice,  mercy  and  charity  ;  Oliver 
asking  for  a  place  in  the  customs  for  one  who 
had  poor  parents,  and  who  was  an  object  of 
pity ;  Oliver  blazing  into  anger  at  the  atrocities 
in  Piedmont,  melting  into  tears  for  the  sufferers, 
sending  them  aid,  arresting  his  diplomacy  with 
Mazarin,  and  telling  the  Pope  that  if  the  Duke 
of  Savoy  stop  not  his  persecutions,  English 
cannon  shall  be  heard  at  the  Vatican. 

This  is  the  man  who  interests  ns.  It  is  the 
sensitive,  excitable,  scrupulous,  sympathetic,  af- 
fectionate, prayerful  man  ;  just  the  same  on  the 
little  farm  of  St.  Ives  that  he  was  in  Whitehall. 
We  know  but  little  of  him,  but  that  little  deeply 


250  CHARACTER. 

interests  us.  It  makes  us  revere  and  love  him. 
"  Magnanimity  and  mercy,"  says  Richard  Garnett, 
"  shine  forth  with  a  brightness  fully  effacing  the 
worst  charges  against  him."  "  There  are  but 
few  indeed,"  says  Frederick  Harrison,  "  in  whom 
the  family  affections  nourish  a  spirit  so  pure  in 
the  midst  of  distracting  public  duties  to  the  last 
hour  of  an  overburdened  life.  .  .  .  For  the 
thirty-eight  years  of  his  married  life  Crom- 
well was  all  that  a  loving  husband  and  father 
could  be,  overflowing  with  affection  even  on  the 
battlefield  and  in  the  stress  of  affairs,  indulgent, 
but  not  weak,  considerate,  provident,  just,  counsel- 
ing, reproving,  exhorting,  yearning  to  lead  his 
children  to  feel  his  own  intense  sense  of  God's 
presence." 

Dean  Stanley  says  that  "  Oliver  Cromwell, 
when  he  came  to  wield  the  power  of  Church  and 
State,  of  universities  and  of  armies  alike  was 
tolerant  to  a  degree  which  his  humble  followers 
were  incapable  of  imitating  or  understanding." 
Bishop  Burnet  remarked  that  the  Protector 
showed  his  good  understanding  in  nothing  more 
than  in  seeking  out  capable  and  worthy  men  for 
:ill  employments,  but  most  particularly  for  the 
courts  of  law  which  gave  a  general  satisfaction. 
Thurloe  is  said  to  have  been  offered  a   place  by 


CHARACTER.  251 

Charles  II.  when  the  Protectorate  was  ended, 
and  to  have  expressed  his  fears  about  serving 
His  Majesty  as  he  had  served  the  Protector,  for 
Oliver  was  "a  man  who  sought  men  for  places, 
and  not  places  for  men.'' 

What  Lord  Clarendon  so  well  said  of  Mon- 
trose is  equally  true  of  Cromwell :  "  He  never 
declined  any  enterprise  for  the  difficulty  of  go- 
ing through  with  it ;  "  and  Clarendon,  the  greatest 
of  the  old  royalist  writers,  gives  qualified  praise 
to  Cromwell,  when  he  says  that  "his  wicked- 
nesses could  not  have  accomplished  his  trophies 
without  the  assistance  of  a  great  spirit,  an  ad- 
mirable circumspection  and  sagacity,  and  a  most 
magnanimous  resolution.1' 

Macaulay,  before  he  was  thirty  years  old.  had 
overcome  his  royalist  prejudices,  and  no  longer 
wrote,  as  at  the  age  of  seven,  that  Oliver  was 
"  an  unjust  and  wicked  man."  He  became  the 
champion  of  the  Protector  in  his  fifth  article  in 
the  Edinburgh  Review  in  1828. 

Hallam  had  written  of  Cromwell  as  one  who 
"  had  sucked  only  the  dregs  of  a  besotted  fanati- 
cism, "  while  he  spoke  of  Napoleon  ;is  "one  to 
whom  the  stores  of  reason  and  philosophy  were 
open."  The  young  reviewer  dared  to  tell  the 
great  historian  that  while  Cromwell  \v;is  inferior 


252  CHARACTER. 

to  Bonaparte  in  invention,  he  was  far  superior  to 
him  in  wisdom :  that  Cromwell's  "  fanaticism 
never  confused  his  perceptions  of  the  public 
good  ;  "  that  "  never  was  any  ruler  so  conspicu- 
ously born  for  sovereignty;  "  that  his  "mind  ex- 
panded more  rapidly  than  his  fortunes;"  that 
"  insignificant  as  a  private  citizen,  he  was  a  great 
general,  and  a  still  greater  prince ;  that  he  was 
a  man  who  left  his  own  character  to  take  care  of 
itself ;  that  no  sovereign  ever  carried  to  the  throne 
so  strong  a  sympathy  with  the  interest  and  feel- 
ings of  his  people  ;  and  that  he  went  down  to 
his  grave  in  the  fullness  of  power  and  fame." 

Oliver  not  only  left  his  character  to  take  care 
of  itself,  but  he  seems  to  have  been  utterly 
oblivious  as  to  his  literary  reputation.  Some  of 
his  war  letters  are  remarkable  for  their  strength 
and  clearness  ;  but  he  took  no  pains  to  preserve 
them.  His  speeches  were  great  speeches,  but  he 
could  not,  after  giving  them,  recall  the  language 
which  he  had  used.  He  was  once  asked  to  fur- 
nish the  Parliament  with  a  copy  of  a  speech  ;  he 
could  not  comply  with  the  request.  The  "thing," 
:i  favorite  word  with  him,  was  what  he  was  con- 
cerned with  ;  not  oratory  or  fame. 

The  religion  of  the  established  church,  in  the 
opinion  of  Charles  II..  was  the  only  religion   ex- 


CHARACTER.  253 

cept  that  of  Rome,  fit  for  a  gentleman  ;  the  re- 
ligion of  Cromwell  was  not  so  much  for  gentle- 
men as  for  sinners  ;  but  while  he  clung  to 
doctrines  which  are  now  regarded  as  too  rigid, 
and  by  the  majority  of  Christians  as  untenable, 
he  constantly  illustrated  in  his  life  the  spirit  of 
his  divine  Master.  But  by  nearly  all  writers  he 
has  been  represented  as  insincere,  and  the  title 
by  which  he  is  commonly  recognized  is  that  of 
hypocrite.  The  Boston  Advertiser  of  January 
21,  184(3,  touches  on  this  charge  in  the  following 
statement :  "  One  point  Mr.  Carlyle  has  settled  ; 
it  is  Cromwell's  sincerity.  Not  the  most  bigoted 
follower  of  the  Clarendon  school  will  repeat  the 
old-fashioned  cant  about  Cromwell's  hypocrisy 
and  falsehood."  This  passage  may  have  been 
written  by  Edward  Everett  Hale  ;  if  not  by  him, 
then  by  his  distinguished  father,  the  editor  of 
the  Boston  Advertiser.  The  question  of  Oliver's 
sincerity  is  undoubtedly  settled  by  the  letters, 
the  speeches,  and  by  Carlyle's  elucidations.  It 
should  have  been  settled  by  the  "  State  Papers  "  of 
Thnrloe  long  before  Carlyle  discovered  the  letters 
and  did  his  "  job  of  buck-washing "  on  the 
speeches.  Those  folios,  which  had  so  little  value 
in  Walter  Scott's  day,  prove  that  Oliver  was  not 
"a  man  of  falsehoods,  but  a  man  of  truths." 


254  CHARACTER. 

There  are  terrible  stories  told  by  royalists  in 
connection  with  the  death  of  King  Charles,  in 
order  to  show  that  Oliver  was  a  brutal  man. 
One  of  these,  the  surgical  operation  story  of  Dr. 
Bates,  has  been  disposed  of ;  the  king's  body  was 
not  so  mutilated.  But  it  is  affirmed  that  at  the 
time  of  the  signing  of  the  death  warrant,  Oliver 
smeared  Henry  Martyn's  face  with  ink,  and  that 
he,  with  others,  forced  Richard  Iugoldsby,  he  re- 
sisting, to  put  his  name  to  the  fatal  paper  by 
holding  and  guiding  his  hands.  The  story  is 
based  on  Ingoldsby's  applying  for  a  pardon  after 
the  restoration  ;  but  he  had  not  the  death  war- 
rant to  support  his  statement.  The  thing  in 
itself  is  incredible  ;  but  it  is  proved  to  be  a  lie 
by  Bishop  Warburton  who  thus  writes :  "  The 
original  warrant  is  still  extant,  and  Ingoldsby's 
name  has  no  such  mark  of  its  being  wrote  in 
that  manner."  The  ink  story  we  cannot  refute  ; 
let  it  stand,  and  let  royalists  get  all  the  comfort 
they  can  out  of  it.  We  know  the  sympathy 
which  Cromwell  had  for  Charles  I.  and  his  little 
children,  how  he  wept  when  he  saw  them  to- 
gether :  and  the  account  of  his  going  to  the 
room  where  the  king's  body  lay  on  the  night 
after  the  execution  may  here  be  given,  as  a  con- 
trast to  the  above  relations.     Mr.  ( iardiner  thinks 


CHARACTER.  255 

this  touching  story  credible.  Lord  Southampton 
and  a  friend  obtained  permission  to  sit  and  watch 
through  the  night  at  Whitehall  with  the  dead 
king.  About  midnight,  a  man  closely  muffled 
entered  the  room,  approached  the  coffin,  opened 
the  lid,  gazed  upon  the  face,  and  said,  "  cruel 
necessity."  Southampton  was  not  sure,  but  he 
thought  the  voice  was  the  voice  of  Cromwell. 

In  support  of  the  positions  taken  in  this  book, 
and  keeping  in  view  its  main  object,  which  is  the 
vindication  of  England's  Protector,  I  now  quote 
from  the  last  Encyclopaedia  Britannica.  "Had 
Cromwell  been  less  of  a  Christian  and  more  of  a 
Pagan,  historians  might  have  accorded  to  him 
some  of  that  leniency  with  which  they  have 
spoken  of  the  vices  of  a  Caesar  or  a  Peter  the 
Great.  But  the  same  office  which  cowardly 
hands  had  done  for  his  bones,  servility,  ignorance 
and  prejudice  did  for  his  memory;  and  during 
most  part  of  two  centuries  the  name  of  the 
greatest  man  of  his  own  age  and  one  of  the 
noblest  of  any  age,  has  been  associated  with  all 
the  infamy  that  belongs  to  a  life-long  career  of 
unmitigated  hypocrisy  and  insatiable  ambition. 
Truth,  however,  at  length  begins  to  prevail,  and 
Cromwell's  own  prophetic  hope  is  attaining  ful- 
fillment.     '  I  know  God  has  been  above  all  ill 


256  CHARACTER. 

reports,  and  will  in  his  own  time  vindicate  me.' 
In  speaking,  says  Milton,  of  a  man  so  great  and 
who  has  deserved  so  signally  of  this  Common- 
wealth, I  shall  have  done  nothing  if  I  merely 
acquit  him  of  having  committed  any  crime,  es- 
pecially since  it  concerns  not  only  the  Common- 
wealth but  myself  individually,  as  one  so  closely 
conjoined  in  the  same  infamy,  to  show  to  all 
nations  and  ages,  so  far  as  I  can,  the  supreme 
excellence  of  his  character  and  his  supreme 
worthiness  of  all  praise."  This  article  closes 
with  these  words  :  "  He  was  a  man  for  all  ages 
to  admire,  for  all  Britons  to  honor  in  proud  re- 
membrance. No  royal  name,  at  least  since 
Alfred's,  is  more  worthy  of  our  veneration  than 
that  of  the  Usurper,  Oliver  Cromwell." 

Remarkable  is  this  testimony  considering  where 
it  stands.  Fifty  years  ago  such  praise  in  an 
English  encyclopaedia  would  have  been  impossi- 
ble. The  writer  of  it  acknowledges  the  debt  to 
Carlyle,  and  says  that  he  will  enable  posterity  to 
know  what  kind  of  a  man  Oliver  Cromwell 
really  was. 

Carl  vie  will  enable  scholars  to  know  his  hero, 
but  his  book  never  will  be  rend  except  by  a  few; 
and  hence  the  need  of  such  books  as  the  present 
one.      And  here  I  cannot  but  remark,  that  a  life 


CHARACTER.  257 

of  Oliver  which  will  command  general  attention, 
and  have  a  permanent  place  in  literature,  will 
surely  be  the  work  of  some  future  writer.  It 
will  take  many  years  to  do  it,  but  it  will  he 
done.  Outside  of  the  letters  and  speeches,  Car- 
lyle  left  vast  old  fields  unexplored.  If  he  read 
Thurloe,  he  made  but  little  use  of  his  vast 
materials.  lie  complains  that  Thurloe  had  no 
useful  index,  and  the  absence  of  allusions  to 
scenes  depicted  and  events  related  in  the  "  State 
Papers/'  indicates  that  he  never  carefully  went 
through  the  book.  "  Not  one  of  these  monstrous 
old  volumes  -the  Rushworth's,  Whitelocke's, 
Nalson's,  Thurloe's  "  — ■  he  says,  "  has  so  much 
as  an  available  index."  He  calls  them  "  dreary 
old  records."  He  is  in  error  ;  Thurloe's  is  a  won- 
derfully interesting  book  ;  and  the  London  edition 
of  1742  has  a  complete  Cromwell  index  at  the 
end  of  each  volume.  Years  could  be  spent  in 
New  England  libraries  alone  in  collecting  materi- 
als  for  a  life  of  Cromwell  which  would  be  worthy 
of  an  enduring  place  in  literary  annals. 

Our  little  task  is  done.  It  has  been  the  story 
of  a  great  hero  who  was  the  possessor  of  all 
those  qualities  which  tit  a  man  to  guide  and  to 
govern  his  fellowmen  ;  a  ruler  who  sowed  seeds 
which   lay  dormant   for   a   generation    and  then 


258  CHARACTER. 

bore  good  fruit  for  all  coming  time ;  a  Protector 
who  watched  with  anxious  thought  and  noble 
courage  over  England,  over  'the  Protestants  of 
Europe  and  the  colonists  in  America  ;  a  man 
free  from  hypocrisy  and  insincerity,  whose  charac- 
ter was  illumined  by  all  Christian  virtues,  and 
who  illustrated  in  his  life  the  principles  which 
he  had  learned  from  a  divine  Master. 


INDEX. 


Addison,  on  Milton,  7. 
Alva,  Duke  of,  bloody  work  of,  63,  64. 
American  School  History  on  Crom- 
well, 29. 
Armada,  the,  113. 
Atterbury,  Dean,  on  Milton,  8. 

Banks,  John,  on  Cromwell,  S. 

Bates,  Dr.  George,  on  Cromwell,  3. 

Beard,  Dr.,  Schoolmaster  to  Crom- 
well, 42,  47,  49- 

"  Bishops'  War,"  the,  109. 

Blake,  Admiral,  and  his  victories, 
149,  168,  169. 

Bourchier,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Oliver 
Cromwell,  59. 

Brooks,  Rev.  Phillips,  on  Crom- 
well, 235. 

Buckle,  on  Cromwell,  247. 

Burnet,  Bishop,  on  Cromwell,  154, 
250. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  ignores  Bates  on 
Cromwell,  3 ;  on  writers  on 
Cromwell,  S ;  his  life  of  Crom- 
well, 30,  34,  256;  our  debt  to, 
33 ;  on  Mark  Noble's  aspersions, 
75;  his  Cromwell  letters,  78;  on 
the  Protectorate  Parliament,  144; 
on  Richard  Cromwell,  184,  209; 
on  life  at  Whitehall,  193. 


Chambers's  Encyclopaedia  on  Car- 
lyle's  Cromwell,  36. 

Charles  I. , attempts  to  seize  the  mem- 
bers of  Parliament,  79 ;  his  ob- 
stinacy, 83 ;  defeat  of,  94 ;  at 
Hampton  Court,  119;  his  death 
decided  on,  123. 

Charles  II.,  King,  his  boyish  quarrel 
with  Cromwell,  56;  invited  to 
Dublin,  96;  prospects  gone,  99; 
proclaimed  King  of  Scots  and  of 
England,  99;  retreats  to  Wor- 
cester, 104;  flight  of,  106;  re- 
fused an  audience  with  Maza- 
rin,  155. 

Civil  War,  the,  Causes  of,  80. 

Clarendon,  Lord,  on   Cromwell,  14, 

23,67,  170,  '73- 
Cleaveland,  John,  on  Cromwell,  12, 

13,23- 
"  Court  of  Blood,"  Alva's,  64. 
Court  of  High  Commission,  the,  3. 
Cowley,  Abraham,  on  Cromwell,  12, 

14,  15,  16. 
Craik,  George,  on  Waller,  10. 
Cromwell,  Bridget,  second  daughter 

of      Oliver,      marries      Ireton, 

185. 
Cromwell,    Elizabeth,    daughter     of 
Oliver,  marries    Claypole,   185 ; 
death  of,  206. 


INDEX. 


Cromwell,  Frances,  daughter  of  Oli- 
ver, marries  Rich,  185. 

Cromwell,  Sir  Henry,  grandfather  of 
Oliver  Cromwell,  52. 

Cromwell,  Henry,  son  of  Oliver,  66; 
ability  of,  1S4. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  neglected  by  his- 
torians, 1;  lives  of,  1,  2;  let- 
ters of,  2  ;  Pepys's  good  words 
f°r>  3 1  grand  nature  of,  11; 
Hutchinson  and,  iS  ;  Ludlow 
and,  20;  "  Letters  and  Speeches," 
24  ;  aspersions  on,  disproved, 
27  ;  his  birthplace,  42  ;  his 
parents,  43,  44;  boyhood  of, 
45,  48;  his  sports,  50;  indiff- 
erence to  dress,  55 ;  his  fa- 
ther's business,  56;  at  college,  57, 
59;  made  captain,  58;  marriage, 
59;  as  a  farmer,  60,  61,  64,  66, 
68,  75  ;  member  of  Parliament, 
71  ;  succeeds  to  his  uncle's  prop- 
erty at  Ely,  71  ;  letter  to  Mrs. 
St.  John,  75;  his  letters,  78; 
takes  little  share  in  bringing 
about  the  Civil  War,  82 ;  in  the 
Parliament  of  1640,  S2  ;  in  House 
of  Commons,  84  ;  Captain  of 
Troop  67,  85  ;  at  Battle  of  Edge- 
hill, S5;  in  the  army  of  Parliament, 
86;  at  Battle  of  Gainsborough, 
87 ;  second  in  command,  88 ;  at 
Wincc-by  fight,  S8  ;  at  Voik  and 
Marston  Moor,  SS;  at  Newbury, 
89;  brings  charges  against  Earl 
of  Manchester,  90;  retired,  90  ; 
recalled  by  Fairfax,  92  ;  at  Nase- 
by,  93;  at  Preston,  95;  in  Ire- 
land, 96,  97  ;  made  commander- 
in-chief,  100;  in  Scotland,  100; 
at  Dunbar  Battle,  102  ;  at  Battle 
cJ  Worcester,  105  ;  recklessness 
of,  105  ;  his  greatness,  106  ;  mem- 


ber of  the  Parliament  of  1628, 
107;  of  1640,  in  ;  his  ecclesias- 
tical education,  112,  114  ;  his  hon- 
esty, 116;  King  Charles,  and, 
119,  121  ;  at  Windsor  Castle 
prayer  meeting,  123  ;  signs  King 
Charles's  death  warrant,  124  ; 
named  Protector,  124 ;  reception 
by  London,  125;  his  patriotism, 
126;  the  "  soul  of  the  Common- 
wealth," 130;  dissolves  the  Par- 
liament, 132,  134;  summons  the 
notables,  135;  named  Lord  Pro- 
tector of  England,  Ireland  and 
Scotland,  138 ;  called  the  Con- 
stable, 138  ;  strengthens  the 
naval  power,  142 ;  dissolves  Par- 
liament, 143;  asked  to  accept 
title  of  King,  146;  declines,  147, 
149;  illness  of,  151;  his  last 
speech  in  Parliament,  152;  sup- 
presses the  royalist  insurrection, 
154;  supremacy  of  England  un- 
der, 157  ;  recognition  of  by  Euro- 
pean powers,  157  ;  signs  three 
treaties  of  peace,  166;  naval  suc- 
cesses of,  169  ;  his  greatness 
abroad,  170,  173  ;  and  the  Hugue- 
nots, 175  ;  his  foreign  policy,  17S ; 
our  debt  of  gratitude  to,  181 ; 
life  at  Whitehall,  1S4,  iSS,  194, 
196 ;  letters  on  his  daughter's 
marriage,  1S6  ;  letter  to  his 
daughter-in-law,  1S7;  his  sports, 
192;  his  mother  at  Whitehall; 
195;  the  Jews  and,  201  ;  inaugu- 
ration as  Protector,  203  ;  man  iage 
of  his  daughters,  204  ;  overthrows 
a  royalist  insurrection,  205  ;  death, 
207  ;  his  letters  :  to  Downhall, 
208;  toHand,  212;  to  his  wife, 
215  :  to  Anthony  Hungerford, 
220;  to  Mr,  Mayor,  222,  223;  to 


INDEX. 


Henry  Cromwell,  225;  to  a  com- 
mittee of  the  army,  226;  to  Car- 
dinal'Mazarin,  227,  229;  to  Rhode 
Island  Colony,  230;  to  th  I 
missioners  of  Maryland,  231  ;  to 
the  Governor  of  Virginia,  231  ; 
to  the  Governor  of  Barbadoes, 
232  ;  his  character,  235,  245,  248, 
252  ;  his  early  religious  training, 
236  ;  his  sympathy  for  King 
Charles,  254. 

Cromwell,  Sir  Oliver,  uncle  of  Oliver 
Cromwell,    43,    his    home,    52  ; 
hted  by  King  James,  55. 

Cromwell,  Mary,  daughter  of  (  (liver, 
marries  Fauconberg,  1S5. 

Cromwell,  Richard,  son  of  Oliver, 
27,66;  his  character,  1S4;  mar- 
ries Dorothy  Mayor,  185. 

Cromwell,  Robert,  father  of  Oliver 
Cromwell,  43,  56,  57,  59. 

"  Declaration  to  the  Irish  Bishops," 

the,  97. 
Downhall,  John,  letter  to,  208. 
Dryden,  on  Cromwell,  10,  n. 
Dublin,  English  fleet  at,  97. 
Dugdale,  vituperates  Cromwell,  72. 
Dunbar,  Battle  of,  102. 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  death  of,  6g  ;  frames 
"Petition  of  Rights,"  70;  his 
appeals,  70. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  and  Car- 
Lvle,  35 

Fairfax,  Sir  Thomas,  chief  in  com- 
mand, 90;  requests  Cromwell's 
recall,  91  ;  secures  him  as  a  per- 
manent officer,  92  ;"declines  to  go 
against  the  Scots,  100. 

Fiske,  John,  on  Carlyle's  "  Crom- 
well," 31. 


Fleetwood,  letter  to,  200. 

Froude,  on  the  Church  and  the  Puri- 
tans, 81;  on  Carlyle's  "Crom- 
well," 35. 

Gardiner,  Samuel  R.,  on  Cromwell, 
243- 

Garnett,  Richard,  on  Cromwell,  250. 

Gray,  William,  defamation  of  Crom- 
well in  his  "  Elegy,"  2. 

Green,  on  the  Puritans,  50. 

Griffis,  William  Elliot,  on  the  Neth- 
erlands, 60,  62. 

Gtfizot,  rin  Cromwell,  26,  246. 

Gunpowder  Plot,  the,  114. 

Hallam,  on  Cromwell,  52,  251. 

Hand,  letter  to,  212. 

Hampden,  John,  cousin  of  Crom- 
well, 62,  82,  86. 

Harrison,  Frederick,  on  Cromwell, 
126,  250. 

Heath,  John,  chief  of  the  literary  liars 
about  Cromwell,  9,  23. 

Hooker,  Rev.  Mr.,  on  Cromwell,  242. 

Huguenots,  the,  and  Cromwell,  17;. 

Hume,  David,  works  over  Heath's 
misstatements,  9;  misrepresents 
Cromwell,  22,  23,  24;  his  his- 
tory, 24,  25. 

Hungerford,  Anthony,  letter  to,  220. 

Huntingdon,  birthplace  of  Cromwell, 
42. 

Hutchinson,  Colonel,  and  Cromwell, 
17,  iS,  19,  50. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.,  on  Cromwell,  16, 
<7>  "9.  26,  50. 

Independents  and  Presbyterians,  115, 

116. 
"  Ironsides,"  the,  96. 

James,  King,  at  Hinchinbrook,  53, 
54,  57- 


INDEX. 


Jeffrey,  Francis,  on  Cromwell,  16, 17. 
Jews,  the,  and  Cromwell,  201. 
Jongestall's  account  of   a  reception 

and  dinner  at    Whitehall,    189, 

191. 
Joyce,  Cornet,  rescues  King  Charles, 

liS. 

Kingsley,  on  Cromwell,  24S. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  at  Hinchinbrook, 
57  ;  impeachment  of,  1 1 1  ;  of- 
fered a  cardinal's  cap,  113. 

Lely,  Cromwell's  direction  to,  33. 

Lesley,  David,  commander  of  the 
Scottish  royal  forces,  10  r. 

Lincoln's  Inn,  Thurloe's  papers  in,  2. 

Lingard,  on  Cromwell,  165. 

"  Little  Parliament,"  the,  136. 

Lockhart,  William,  Cromwell's  rep- 
resentative at  the  French  Court, 
177. 

"  Long  Parliament,"  the,  see  "  Par- 
liament of  1640." 
"Lord   of   the  Fens,"  nickname   of 
Cromwell,  67. 

Louis  XIV.,  sends  embassy  to  con- 
gratulate Cromwell,  155. 
Ludlow,  his  fabrications  falsified,  2  ; 
wrong  impressions  of,  19;  enemy 
to  Cromwell,  20,  21,  26. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  on  Cromwell,  17; 
33,  251. 

Magdalene  College,  Pepys's  diary  in 
library  of,  3. 

Maidstone,  John,  letter  to  Governor 
Winthrop  on  Cromwell,  241. 

Manchester,  Earl  of,  in  chief  com- 
mand, S3  ;  refuses  to  pursue  the 
king,  89;  disagreement  with 
Cromwell,  90. 

Marston  Moor,  Battle  of,  89. 


Masham,  Sir  William,  62. 

Mayor,  Dorothy,  Cromwell's  daugh- 
ter-in-law, 187. 

Mazarin,  Cardinal,  letter  to,  227,  229. 

"  Mercurius  Britannicus,"  on  Crom- 
well, 92. 

Milton,  John,  1;  in  Westminster, 
7 ;  friend  of  Cromwell,  16  ;  his 
praise  of  Cromwell,  124,  239,  242, 
256. 

Montrose  and  Cromwell,  251. 

Naseby,  Battle  of,  93- 
Newcastle,  Battle  of,  no. 
Noble,  Mark,  on  Cromwell,  9,  75. 

Ormond,  Duke  of,  invites  Prince 
Charles  to  Dublin,  96. 

Parliament   of    162S,   the,  statesmen 

in,  70;  dissolution  of,  70. 
Parliament  of  1640,  the,  110. 
Pepys,  on  Cromwell,  3. 
"  Petition  of  Rights,"  the,  70. 
Philip    II.  of    Spain,    influence    on 

English  liberty,  62. 
Phillips,  John,  Latin  inscription  on, 

7,8- 
Puritans  neglect  of  Cromwell,  1. 
Puritan  Notables,  the,  meet,  135. 
Prayer  Book,  passage  on   Cromwell 

expunged,  28. 
Preston,  Battle  of,  95. 
Protectorate    Parliament,    the,    138, 

144. 
Protectorate  Parliament,  the  second, 

145- 

Rees  and  Thurlow,  39. 

"  Rump  Parliament,  the,"  132. 

Rupert,  Prince,  SS,  93. 

Russia,  Czar  of  and  Cromwell,   159- 

Scott,    Sir     Walter,    defamation    of 

Cromwell  in  "  Woodstock,"  2. 


INDEX. 


"Self-Denying  Ordinance,"  the, 
go,  92. 

South,  Robert,  on  Oliver  Cromwell, 
10,  12. 

Spain,  war  with,  16S. 

St.  John,  the  lawyer,  defends  Hamp- 
den, 62. 

Stanley,  Dean,  on  Oliver  Cromwell, 
250. 

Star  Chamber  Court,  3. 

Steward,  Sir  Thomas,  leaves  Crom- 
well property  at  Ely,  71  ;  his 
property  described,  73. 

Stuarts,  the,  neglect  of  Cromwell,  1  ; 
Dr.  Bates's  loyalty  to,  3  ;  cham- 
pion of,  6. 

Taine,  on  Cromwell,  246;  on  Car- 
lyle's    "  Life  of    Cromwell,"   36, 

37. 

Thurloe,  Lord,  hidden  papers  of, 
2;  and  the  established  church, 
39 ;  on  Cromwell's  tolei  ation, 
115  ;  on  a  dinner  at  Whitehall, 
iSS. 

Trevelyan,  on  Macaulay's  youthful 
essay  on  Cromwell,  17. 


Trinity  College,  Hartford,  Bates's 
book  on  Cromwell  in  library 
of,  J. 

Waller,  on  Cromwell,  10. 

1  ti  in,    Bi   hup,   on   Ludlow,  19. 

Warburton,  Eliot,  on  Cromwell's 
letters,  233. 

Wentworth,  Paul,  and  the  Petition 
of  Rights,  70  ;  his  bill  for  a  Fast 
for  the:  House,  81. 

We  1  minster,  Dean  of,  stops  inscrip- 
tion to  memory  of  Phillips,  7. 

Wheelwright,  John,  opponent  of 
Cromwell  at  foot-ball,  51. 

Whitelocke,  Bulstrode,  congratulates 
Cromwell,  125  ;  in  conference, 
129  ;  his  account  of  it,  130  ; 
urges  the  kingship  upon  Crom- 
well, 147. 

Worcester,  Rattle  of,  105. 

William  III.,  accession  of,  1,  6. 

William  III.  and  Cromwell,  deserv- 
ing of  the  thanks  of  the  people  of 
England,  156. 

Windsor  Castle,  the  prayer  meeting 
at,  122. 


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